LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



The Earth-Its Third Motion, 



A NEW THEORY, 



— BY- 



MARSHAL WHEELER. 







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PRINTED BY 

Harrison R. Kincaid, Oregon State Journal Office, 
Eugene, Oregon. 

1889. 



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Copyright, 1889. 

by marshal wheetj:r. 



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CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Introductory, --------5 

Additional Remarks, 11 

Former Position of the Poles and Equator, - 15 
Former Position of the Oceans, 20 

Former Glaciers, ------- 22 

The Glacial Epoch, ------ 25 

Mountain Periods, -- - - - - -28 

Continental Elevations, ----- 30 

Population, -------- 32 

Physical Disturbances and Consequences, - 34 
Summary of Proof, - - - - - -37 

APPENDIX— 
The Flood, -------- 38 

Errors of Geology and Astronomy, - - - 39 
A Buried City Discovered, 43 

Time — Eternity, -------45 

Children of the Sun, - ■- - - • 46 

Muir the Explorer, ------ 52 

A Prehistoric Mystery, ----- 54 

A Treasure Cavern, - - 56 

A Petrified Miser. ------ 58 

A Wonderful Find, ------ 59 

Jules Verne Outdone, ----- 59 

Earthquake in Kiushu, - - - - - 64 

Ice in the Rocky Mountains, 67 

Volcanic Relics, 69 

Take Your Choice, 70 

Alaska's Wonder, -------71 

The South Pole, 75 



INTRODUCTORY, 



It has been the usual fate of nearly all new discoveries 
particularly in Astronomical and Geological science, to 
be met first, with incredulity: second, with distrust: third, 
with opposition: fourth, with investigation: and fifth, 
with adoption. Were ray discovery of the Earth's third 
motion to fail of this experience. I should, indeed, be sur- 
prised, and. at the same time, yield a credit to the civili- 
zation of the age beyond my present anticipation: for 
such seems to be the constitution of human nature that 
where the efforts of a life-time have been made in the 
pursuit of any particular science, without any very marked 
results, the advent of a non-professional upon the sceue 
with the prize in grasp, impinges most seriously on the 
patience of the loser. And yez there are noble natures in 
the world who occupy a higher conditional plane of life. — 
to whom truth is priceless from any source, and who wel- 
come with hearty accord the wandering stranger knocking 
at their gates. 

To such I come with my new theory, and only ask for it 
a fair and patient investigation proportionate with its im- 
portance. 

Tn the few succeeding pages of this little pamphlet 1 
have given a succession of brief hinrs which I hope may 
aid in the investigation. 

In tny investigations I have steered entirely clear of all 
authorities, secular or religious, aud taken all of my views 
from an independent aud. I trust, the purely scientific 



8 THE EARTH I TV THIRD MOTION. 

all candor, hoping that von will cause scientific investiga- 
tion to be made to determine, so far as possible, the truth. 
or falsity, of the following propositions embodying my 
idea, viz : 

1st. That the Warth is subject to a periodical third motion. 

2nd. That said third motion consists in the Earth?* turning 

upon its own center in a direction at right angles with the plane* 

of its two ki/own motions. 

3rd. That said third motion requires the lapse of ages to 
produce it. 

4th. That said third motion may occur with a certain de- 
gree of suddenness. 

5th. That the momentum of the Earth will cause an oscil- 
lating motion, alternating in the direct and reverse direction of 
its central turning, which if ill gradually die away and cease 
altogether during a certain period. 

6th. That the Earth will come to a rest at ninety degrees 
from its starting point, reversing the present position of the 
poles and the equator. 

7th, That after said third motion is fulbj accomplished the 
Earth's revolution on its new axis will be rhythmical r , and its 
orbital path serpentine in. a direction to and from the sun. until 
it shall have assumed its present form again in obedience to the 
law of centrifugal force. 

8th. Thai the Earth\s third motion will be caused by the 
encircling magnetic currents now controlling it. whose northern 
vortex (magnetic north) is moving westward at the rate of about 
four minutes of a degree per year. 

9th. And that said third motion of the Earth, and the action 
of its controlling power, is in accordance with the universal 
rhythmical law governing the universes and all their entities. 

That said third motion has occurred during compara- 
tively recent ages, is indicated by those traces of glacial 



AN OPEN LETTER. 9 

action to be found in certain portions of the middle zones. 
which must have occupied a position where the direct 
rays of the sun could not r.'ach them in order to form vast 
rields of ice. and further, in the existence of certain flora 
and fauna in the Arctic regions, which could only have 
been produced in a temperate or toirid climate. The fact 
of these indications remaining so plain to-day. notwith- 
standing the destructive action of the elements, supple- 
mented by the obliterating hand of man for hundreds and 
thousands of years, gives rise to the impression above ex- 
pressed. 

That this third motion of the Earth has been of repeated 
occurrence, during the lapse of ages unnumbered, is evi- 
denced by the finding, at certain distauces below its sur- 
face, different layers of water-worn gravel, marine shells, 
etc.. in both the American and European continents. 

That the ancients, of a later period, must have possessed 
a legendary knowledge of the most recent recurrence of 
the Earth's third motion, is evidenced from the Xoahan 
account of the Old Testament. How much was lost of 
this awful history, through the destruction of the Alexan- 
drian library, the world can never know. And, later on. 
this same knowledge mav have caused the building of the 
pyramids, to stand as a perpetual assertion that the exist- 
ence of the race of man antedates the awful shock of a 
reversed world, for it hardly seems probable that they 
«hould be but the monuments of human vanity. 

Whether the facts that the Earth is incessantly agitated. 
by seismic action, all over its known surface and is never 
wholly at rest, and that the comments of the world are 
rising in some parts and falling in others — that of the 
Xorth American to be measured by feet since its settle- 
ment by the whites — is an indication that it is not yet fully 
settled to solidity since its last central turn, or whether 
these are indications that it is now approaching another of 



THE EAR1H-ITS THIRD MOTION. 

it- periodical changes, or whether the \> hole is the result 
of other causes, is a question yet to be decided. 

The acceptance and adoption of this new theory con- 
cerning the motion- of the Earth, will lend a coloring Of 
scientific truth, independent of religious belief, to the 
biblical account ol the tiood: it will also account for the 
presence, at the tops of the highest mountain-, of marine 
shells, etc.. and for the overwhelming and burial of vast 
forests, and of myriads of animate marine life, beneath 
the present surface of the Earth, which, h : i-hemicii 
action, has been transformed into various kinds of coal in 
exhaustle-s quantities, and into great sand -rock reservoir- 
of petroleum : and it will also explain the present and 
iormei existence of volcanoes, caused by the enormou- 
heat-creating attrition of great portions ot the broken 
Earth grinding together, in consequence of the rransfer- 
rence. with sudden violence, of the weight of oceans from 
one part of its surface to another. 

When it is understood that, upon a recurrence of said 
third motion, every nation and kingdom of the globe will 
be swept out of existence, to remain in that desolate con- 
dition then for ages to come, and that, at best, but a small 
remnant of the human family will be left in possession of 
the new Earth, it would seem of the highest importance 
to know of the accuracy of the propositions giveu above. 
If they should prove true, the whole world should be in- 
formed of the fact, and means taken to forever perpetuate 
that knowledge, so that, when that dread event transpires 
mankind should not lapse again into prehistoric barbarism. 
but> instead, the rhythm of man's existence be raised to a 
higher plane of action. Respectfully. 

MARSHAL WHEELER. 

Eugene. Oregon. L\ S. A., June. 1889. 



ADDITIONAL REMARKS. 



I do not look upon this newly-discovered motion of the 

Earth as at all singular or extraordinary.. Xo two planets 
of the solar system are alike in -ize, form, or rate of mo- 
tion: tneir orbits are differeut in size,, shape and pitch. 

Their satellites differ in respective numbers, and the orbits 
of ihe.-r' jiiffer not only from each other, but from tbpse oi 
their several controlling planets. 

For aught that is known, other planet- than the Earth 
may be subject to a third morion.— even the Sun itself. 

In common with the whole solar system the Earth ha-. 
as is well known, a fourth motion toward the constellation 
of Hercules, in an orbit vast bey mid conception, going 150 
millions of miles per year, traversing the boundless im- 
mensity of the fathomless profound. But this fact is sel- 
dom mentioned when treating of the Earth. What influ- 
ence this change of position among the universes can have 
upon the Earth is. at best, but conjectural. We know that 
the law of ceaseless change rs universal in its action, and. 
consequently, the cou-tellation of Hercules may not be in 
existence to-day. as it was ages upon age> ago. when the 
light started upon its journev from those blazing suns 
which we now see. 

In our consideration of inrlueuces reaching the Earth 
from the fixed stars, we have to take into account the 
amazing distances traversed. For instance, the light of 
the nebula of Orion has taken 00.000 years to reach thi- 
Earth, though light travels at the rate of 185,000 mile- 



12 THE EARTH -ITS THIRD MOTION. 

per second, and the Xorth Star (Polaris) is so far distant 
that no parallax can be obtained at the extremities of a 
base 200.000.000 of miles long. And yet. however weak 
the influences may be, coming from the astral regions, it 
is unquestionable that they possess a certain potency over 
the Earth, for it is to be remembered that there is im- 
measurably more friction caused by the weight of a cam- 
bric needle, revolving upon its own point, than by the 
whole of our vast globe in all its revolutions, if the teach- 
ings of modern science are not in error. If not counter- 
acted by other influences, the pressure of a feather would 
turn the world over. It may be, therefore, that the cen- 
tral turning of the Earth will be accomplished by a con- 
junction of the astral and local forces, when the solar 
system shall have reached a certain point in its orbit. 

It must not be overlooked in this connection, however, 
that the moon also exercises a very powerful local influ- 
ence upon the Earth, causing its north pole to oscillate to 
and fro as it revolves in its path, and that the Earth's orbit 
also has an oscillating motion, changing from year to year. 
The smr s diameter is 850.000 miles : the earth's diameter 
is. say. 8,000 miles: owing to this oscillating movement of 
the Earth's orbit, there may come a time when said oscil- 
lation will carry the Earth so near to a lateral limb of the 
sun as to overbalance it and thus cause the central turning. 

There are other influences which maybe brought to bear, 
such as polarization of the globe to such an extent as to 
render one pole positive and the other negative to the sun's 
attraction. In such case the Earth will be brought to rest 
with the attracted pole toward the sun, thus accomplishing 
a ninety degree revolution, and its first diurnal revolutions 
maintained by alternate attraction and repulsion until suf- 
ficient remagnetization will permit its motion to be main- 
tained by induction of the encircling currents. 

The knowledge that the Earth has turned once upon its 



ADDITIONAL REMARKS, :. 13 

center discloses the existence of a law which has caused it. 
The law. being imperishable, will repeat itself. 

It may be well to further remark in this connection, that 
the adoption of this theory of the Earth's motion renders 
unnecessary the adoption of a theory that the interior of 
the Earth is a molten mass, covered on its exterior by an 
exceedingly thin shell or crust, the rising or falling of 
which is necessary to freeze or thaw certain portions of 
the Earth, to create a climate which shall enable the aver- 
age investigator to successfully account for the existence 
of certain rlora and fauna in regions impossible. It will 
also disabuse the ordinary mind of the impression that 
volcanoes are but chimney Hues, existing to relieve the 
Earth's interior cauldron of all extra gas. smoke, etc. It 
will also render a reasonable solution of the geologist's 
1 'Z ost Record" problem. — a time really when the whole 
Earth — not its crust alone — was oscillating or swaying to 
fro under the influence of momentum caused by its central 
taming. This problem is sometimes called the "Lost In- 
terval," and sometimes the "Lost Period." There is un- 
mistakable evidence from the geologist's standpoint of the 
recurrence of these ••periods" at four different times, and 
strong indications of many more. A further delving into 
the bowels of this solid Earth would doubtless reveal other 
••periods." ad infinitum, to mark its central motions 
through the ages past, and to stand as predictions of what 
may be expected to come in future ages forever. 

It is small wonder, therefore, that under the repeated 
action of this great law. vast cities should be submerged 
at one time, only to reappear at another, in the form of 
ancient massive ruins half buried in the ocean debris of 
the ages, and that all knowledge of their former inhab- 
itants should have perished. So suddenly did this awful 
calamity overtake the ancient copper miners of the Lake 
Superior region, that they left their tools behind them and 
tied before the inflowing oceans. All there is left to-day, 



14 THE EARTH— ITS THIRD MOTION. 

of the prehistoric race of mound builders who once inhab- 
ited this continent, is their poor melancholy graves, the 
silent witnesses of their occupants* former existence. 

Artesian wells, sunk to great depths in different parts of 
the world, have betrayed some of the hidden secrets of 
the repeated central turnings of the Earth, by piercing 
deposit after deposit, at different depths, of what was once 
the ocean bed. One put down in East Portland pas-el 
through five different lavers in 1800 feet. 



FORMER POSITION OF THE 
POLES AND EQUATOR. 



From the best that can be learned regarding the position 
of the poles and the equator, previous to the most recent 
central turn of the Earth, it is probable that the axis of 
the Earth passed through at the points located at 104° and 
at 284 J longitude east from Greenwich; and the former 
equator of the earth bisected the present one at the points 
indicated at 14 3 and at 194 D east from Greenwich. 

The reasons for the foregoing assertions are. that the 
longest equatorial diameter of the earth is through a point 
14 = east from Greenwich ; and the shortest at 104°. the dif- 
ference being two miles, giving the Earth formerly some- 
what of its present form. 

The former 104 3 pole was located in the south end of the 
Malayan sea. at its junction with the straits of Malagoa 
and Billiton. bounded by Malaya on the north. Sumatra on 
the west and South, and Borneo on the east. The frigid 
zone surrounding this pole included the southern part of 
China, one-half of Birmah. a small fraction of Hindoo- 
stan. one-half the island of Ceylon, touched the northwest 
corner of Australia, and took one-half of Luzon Island. 
It also included the whole of Hainan Island : the countries 
of Anam. Siam and Malaya: the islands of Sumatra. Java. 
Borneo. Celebes. Mindanao, beside a great number of 
smaller islands. 

The former 284° pole was located in Ecuador, on the 
west coast of South "America, about two and a half degrees 



THE EARTH— ITS THIRD MOTION. 16 

east of Quito, the capital of the country. The frigid zone 
surrounding this pole included one-half of Yucatan, 
nearly the whole of Central America, three-quarters of 
Bolivia, all of the northwest part of Brazil — including the 
Amazon River. — nearly all of Guiana. It also include! all 
of the West India islands. Panama. United State- of Co- 
lombia. Ecuador. Peru and Venezuela, beside syaie island- 
of the Pacific Ocean. 

According to the foregoing, the meridian of the former 
equator must have bisected Spi zbergen Island in the Are- 
tic Ocean: thence south through the Arctic Ocean. Nor- 
way. Sweden, the Baltic Sea. Prussia, Austria, Italy. Sicily, 
the ^Mediterranean Sea. Tripoli. Fezzan. along the eastern 
side of the great desert of Sahara, through Lake Tsad. 
Africa, along the west coast of Lower Guinea and Africa. 
into the South Atlantic Ocean near Walvish Bay. and 
thence through said ocean and the Antarctic Ocean, to the 
South Pole : and thence north through the Antarctic and 
South Pacific Ocean to near the eastern shore of the Island 
of Danger: thence through the Xorth Pacific Ocean to the 
extreme southwest point of the territory of Alaska, cutting 
off the Aleutian Isles on the west : thence through the Sea 
of Kamtschatka. along the west shore of Alaska, and east 
of Asiatic Russia, to Cape Prince of YTales. Alaska: thence 
north through Behring's Straits and the Arctic Ocean to 
the Xorth Pole, and thence south, through the Arctic 
Ocean, to Spitzbergen Island. The tropical belt (of which 
this equatorial meridian is the middle division) included 
on the east, all of the northwestern portion of Xorth 
America lying west of the Great Slave Lake, all lying 
north of Hudson's Bay. and included nearly the whole of 
Greenland, and all of Iceland. On the west it included all 
of northern Russian Asia. On the opposite side of the 
globe the entire width of this tropical belt included the 
British islands and nearly all of Europe and Africa. The 
remainder of the countries of the Earth occupied a tem- 



FORMER POSITION OF THE POLES AND EQUATOR, 17 

.perate climate, excepting, of course, the present two poles 
and frigid zones, which at that time formed a part of the 
torrid zones of- the equator, 

In farther confirmation of the accuracy of my location 
of th j f)i\n-?r equator just described, it maybe remarked 
in this connection, that wherever land is to he found in or 
ti9ir the frigid zone of the north (where the former torrid 
Koae ra'tersseted said present frigid zone), there are to be 
found to-day the remains of elephants, mastodons and other 
animals which could only have been produced and existed in 
a tropical region, and this assertion is also true of certain 
kinds of vegetation found there. 

To trace stiil further said torrid zone. I quote from Pro- 
fessor Joseph Le Conte's Geology: 

••Of the present flora of Great Britain about one-thirty - 
"fifth are Ferns, and none of these Tiee-ferus. Of the 
" Coal flora of Qt eat? Britain about one-half were Ferns. 
•• and many of these Tree-ferns. At present in all Europe 
"there are not more than sixty known species of Ferns: 
-• in European Coal-measures there are nearly 350 species. 
U and these are certainly but a fraction of the actual nuni- 
•• ber then existing. That this indicates a tropical climate 
"'■is shown by the fact that out of 1.500 species of living 
H Ferns known twenty years ago. 1.200. or four-fifths, were 
4 * tropical species. The number of known living Ferns is 
** now about 3.000. but the proportion of tropical species 
•• is still probably the same. Even in the tropics, however, 
"the proportion of Ferns is far less than in Great Britain 
•■ during the Coal period. Again. Tree-ferns, arborescent 
••Lycopod*. Cyeads. and Araucarian Conifers, are now 
•• wholly confined to tropical or sub-tropical regions. The 
^prevalence of these tropical families and their immense 
••size, compared with their cogeners of the present day. 
•• would seem to indicate not only tropical but vitro. -xvo'p- 
k ical conditions. And these conditions prevailed not only 
•• in the United States and Europe, but northward to 75" 



18 THE EARTH— ITS THIRD MOTION. 

" Dorth latitude; for in Mellville Island have been found coal 
"strata containing Tree-ferns, gigantic Lycopods. Catamites, 
" etc. [The italics are all Prof. Le Conte's.] 

In this way has the torrid zone recorded its preseuce 
formerly in those localities, and this zone could never have 
occupied those positions without the central turning of 
the Earth. 

I must here confess that I have small faith in those the- 
ories which make a baby of the Earth, wrap it in 
specially prepared blankets of impossible texture and tuck 
it up so snug that, without the sun's assistance, or auy special 
amount of interior heat, the little felloe will become so 
hot at its extremities as to thaw the vast mountains and 
tields of polar ice, and produce an u «&rflP~ tropical" climate 
where ** Tree-ferns and gigaDtic Lycopods*' will grow. 

In further confirmation of the accuracy of my location 
of the former position of the poles, I will state that, ac- 
cording to Le Conte, --it has been estimated that, in the 
archipelago about Borneo alone, there are 900 volcanoes.*' 
Also, that there are "groups"' of volcanoes in the West 
Indian islands. As these two localities were formerly 26)^ 
miles nearer together than any other two localities on op- 
posite sides of the globe, upon the central turning of the 
Earth, there was much more to be thrown out, by centri- 
fugal force, at those two localities than at any other point 
on the globe. Consequently there was an enormous heat- 
creating attrition there, resulting in hundreds of volcanoes 
grouped together in those localities. 

Cf course there was a like contraction of the former 
equator, on opposite sides, down to the position of the 
present poles. Here would arise moie heat-creating at- 
trition by this centripetal action, and the creation of more 
enormous volcanoes, and they are standing to-day in and 
about the frigid zones as proof. 

And of course these great expansions and contractions 
of opposite extremities of the globe, could not occur with- 



FORMER POSITION OF THE POLES AND EQUATOR, 19 

out affecting its intermediate parts. According to Le 
Conte. "the most remarkable linear series of volcanoes is 
tk that which belts the Pacific coast. Commencing with 
4 - the Fuegian volcanoes it runs along the whole extent of 
i; the Ande3, then along the Cordilleras of Mexico, the 
<% Rocky Mountains, then along the Aleutian chain of 
"islands. Kamtschatka, the Kurile Islands, Japan Islands. 
"Philippines. Xew Guinea. Xew Zealand, to the Antarctic 
4 * volcanoes, Mounts Erebus and Terror, thence back by 
"Deception Island to Fuegia again, thus completely en- 
"' circling the globe. Volcanoes are generally formed in 
" comparatively recent strata." 

It would seem from the foregoing that the "linear series 
"of volcanoes*' simply indicates the line of greatest weak- 
ness around the globe, and, consequently, the location 
where there was the greatest rupture of the Earth in 
changing it3 form. The Professor, in writing of this pe- 
culiarity, says it seems "as if connected with a great fissure 
of the Earth's crust." and this belt liDe of volcanoes is 
bisected on opposite sides by the pronounced aggregation 
of volcanoes, indicating the former position of the Earth's 
poles. 

The interconnecting chains of mountains also show the 
lines of greatest fracture, consequent upon said central 
turning, and also prove, in a general way, that the Earth 
has no universal crust, because the rocks composing said 
mountains turn out, instead of turning in, under com- 
pression. That there are vast fissures pervading the in- 
terior of the Earth in every conceivable direction is doubt- 
less true, and the occasional collapse of the surface, in 
here and there a lccalitv, is a necessary consequence in 
filling up a cavity beneath. But for all astronomical pur- 
poses the Earth may be considered as solid. 

Apropos to the preceding it maybe also stated that there 
is doubtless great quantities of gas pervading those fis- 
sures, some of which, coming in contact with a live vol- 
cano, closed at its outlet, would expand and, by the assist- 
ance of centrifugal force, create an occasional earthquake. 



FORMER POSITION OF THE 
OCEANS. 



Along the Pacific coast the former water line of. the ocean 
is: plainly visible , high : up on the Casca-de anc]. the Rocky 
Mountains. — near Salt Lake City more than 6,8QQ feet above 
the level of the sea. There are various marine;. deposits 
alsu, occupying lower positions, which indicate a portion 
of its former bed. From such, and other well-known signs, 
located in different parts of. both, hemispheres,, much may 
be learned regarding the. foriner encroachments of the seas 
upon what is now dry land. According to Piofessor 
Joseph Le Conte there .was a time, during the Cretaceous 
Period, when "the Atlantic shore-line in all the northern . 
••portion, of the continent was farther ojli to, r east, than now. 
••for the Cretaceous of this part is all now covered by the . . 
" sea. From Xew Jersey southward the shore-linewas then 
••farther in or west than now. From Maryland, to, .Georgia , 
••the shore-line, though farther in than now, : w:as. farther 
" omt th.au during the .Tertiary, as the Cretaceous is cov- 
• 4 ered by the later deposits. The Gulf shore-line was. 1 
• ; much more extended both northward and westward than 
••either now. or in Tertiary times. From the Gulf there 
••extended northwestward an immensely wide sea. coYev- 
; * ing the Plains region and the Rocky Mountain region as 
••far westward as the Wahsatch range, and dividing the 
••continents into two continents, an eastern or Appala- 
»• lachian, and a western or Basin region continent. Prob- 



FORMER POSITION OF THE OCEANS. 21 

" ably also this sea connected across the region of Mexico 
••with the Pacific, thus dividing the western continent 
" into two, a northern and a southern. The Pacific Ocean 
;i at that time washed against the foot-hills of the Sierra 
•• range/- Upon a recurrence of the Earth's third motion 
the seas are quite likely to reoccupy their old position 
again. 

But as to the land which was bare, previous to the 
Earth's last central turn, the most that can probably be 
learned concerning it. may be through soiae calculations 
of the effects produced by the action of centrifugal force 
ou the waters of the globe, under the changed conditions. 
The proportion of land to w ater was probably the same 
then as now. 



FORMER GLACIERS. 



The trace? of glacial action on both hemispheres, in 
places remote from regions of ice. and at elevations which 
would seem to forbid its accumulation, is plainly accounted 
for under the action of the new theory. Iu obedience to 
the force of momentum the first action of the Earth upon 
its central turning is reciprocal. — a swaying to and fro 
upon its own center. This process is continued for a 
greater or lesser period of time, and being necessarily 
slow in so large a mass as the Earth, gives time for im- 
mense bodies of ice to form from the water temporarily 
thrown upon the Earth's surface, while that surface is 
turned from the sun. Upon the gradual settling of the 
Earth to its normal position this ice would slowly melt 
and slide down all declivities underlying the frozen masses, 
carrying all manner of loose debris with it. In after time, 
when the Earth had ceased its swaying motion, the pol- 
ished mountains, ploughed ravines and scattered boulders 
everywhere would be all there was left to tell the tale, 
save here and there one fathered by the higher mountain 
peaks. 

If the Earth, in common with the rest of the solar sys- 
tem, and all the other universes, be considered one of the 
permanent existences of eternity, it must always have oc- 
cupied the same relative position in said system, and this 
theory of glacial action stands as proof of the third mo- 
tion, for in no other probable way, known to man, could 
such action be accomplished. In confirmation of the above 



FORMER GLACIERS, 23 

suggestion it may be remarked that, as a principle. The 
Eternal should express itself in the Eternally Permanent 
a* much, or more so, as The Creative in The Temporary,— 
the former in al\va} r s being, and the latter in rhythmical 
appearance. Under this ruling man has always had a 
rhythmical existence on the Earths and ahvays will, if no 
worse fate betides him in the future than has in the past. 
That his physical existence cannot be traced back beyond 
a comparatively recent period only proves the annihilating 
effect produced upon his physical body by the repeated 
central turnings of the Earth previously. And what is 
true of man, is also true of animals, only the latter have 
proved to be more enduring by nature. 

Tf, on the other hand, the Earth originated from abso- 
lute nothingness, its origin was unnatural, and it must 
have been a long time in starting without a germ and in 
growing to its present robust proportions, and in getting 
into harmony with the rest of the solar system. Under 
such circumstances nothing short of a supernatural Reve- 
lation could give an account of the glacial periods of this 
Earth, and that would be beyond any finite comprehension. 

It may be that mankind, standing among and witnessing 
the marvellous results of the productive forces of nature, 
as manifested on the face of the Earth, and knowing little 
or nothing of her power to utilize, by combination, the 
different existing elements for purposes of production, has 
thus been led to judge that the Earth itself, and all the 
universes of space, are productions, and of the same tem- 
porary character. 

That there have been oscillations, and apparent up- 
heavals, and apparent depressions of portions of the 
Earth's surface, as geologists declare, is unquestionable. 
But that these seismic actions were confined to a mere 
crust of the Earth, floating on viscosity, or a molten sea 
of fire, and whole continents raised 2.000 feet in the air to 
freeze, is exceedingly doubtful. Such foundations and 



24 THE EARTH— ITS THIRD MOT I OX. 

such results do not seem probable enough to warrant a 
belief in such methods to produce the glaciers of a globe. 
It is far more likely that the traces of glacial action found 
on mountains thousands of feet above the general surface 
of the continent, were made there during the swaying of 
the Earth, when the oceans* waters which were tempo- 
rarily thrown there were frozen over, like the polar sea- 
now. by being turned from the sun. Upon the reversal of 
the Earth in swaying back, vast quantities of the ice 
would naturally be left behind by the retiring water? and 
more or less of glacial action take place. The repeated 
swaying? of the Earth would necessarily produce a suc- 
cession of glaciers, each one shorter than its predecessor. 
This action easily explains the problem given by G. Fred- 
erick Wright. D. D.. in his Ice Age in Xorth America, 
where he says: -From a combination of causes which 
M cannot yet be explained there were periods of rapid ad- 
••vance alternating with periods of retreat, intercalated 
" with long periods of established equilibrium." 

Among all the different theories yet announced by in- 
vestigators regarding the cause of the Glacial period, none 
have proved convincing or satisfactory to the geologist or 
astronomer, so that, at last, they have come to the conclu- 
sions given by Professor Le Conte and Eev. G. Frederick 
Wright: the former saying: "The evidence at present. 
; * therefore, is overwhelmingly in favor of the uniqueness 
••of the Glacial epoch.*' and the latter says: --The sum 
v - of the whole matter, so far as theory is concerned, seems 
•• to be that as yet we do not know what was the ultimate 
; -.cause of the Glacial period." 

But for the discovery of the central turning of the Earth, 
and its resultant swaying motion. — the key to the whole 
Glacial mystery, the world would have remained in ignor- 
ance of that cause until another experiencing of that dread 
event. 



THE GLACIAL EPOCH. 



Iii the foregoing pages reference has frequently been 
made to a Glacial epoch and Glacial action. If this the- 
ory of the Earth's third motion is accepted as true, it is 
not difficult to account for any Glacial epoch of the Earth, 
and there have been countless numbers of those epochs, if 
the third motion is periodical. 

By reference to the illustration in the frontispiece it will 
be seen the Earth is bisected with two Meridians,— a Tor- 
rid and a frigid; the former extending from the Sun's cen- 
ter to the Earth, and the latter from the Celestial ]^orth 
through the Earth's center. These two Meridians stand 
at exact right angles with each other. Each has its own 
zone, the former one, the latter two, which widen and 
narrow as the Earth pursues its orbital motion, revolving 
on its axis. The plane of the Torrid Meridian is flat; the 
plane of the Frigid Meridian that of a variable elliptical 
cylinder, of the exact size and shape of the Earth's orbit, 
It divides the Earth in two unequal parts. 

As darkness is the absence of light, so is cold the ab- 
sence of heat. Whatever sides of the Earth are presented 
to the deadly influence of the Frigid Meridian are sure to 
be frozen. Even a living volcano will succumb in time. 
The heat of the Earth is entirely latent, like that of a 
block of ice. It is never manifested only when excited to 
action by extraneous causes. Attrition is one cause, oc- 
casionally producing the extreme of a volcano ; the im- 
pinging of the sun's rays is another, but milder and more 



26 THE EARTH— ITS THIRD MOTION. 

general in results, because more scattered. — if concented. 
a live fire is the result. Pressure is still another exciting 
cause. But there is no more compression about the Earth's 
center than there is about its circumference, where there 
is absolutely none beyond that of the air. because the 
Earth is composed of concentric globular arches, e ich one 
self-sustaining, and. running from the center ou ward, 
growing proportionately lighter, lifted by centrifugal 
force, the result of rotation. The thermometrical measure 
of temperature at different depths of the Earth is mainly 
that of the superincumbent air under increased pressure. 
The absorbtion of the heat by surrounding rocks would 
have a tendency to lower the record. 

There being a total absence of all exciting cause to de- 
velop the Earth's latent heat on the line of the Frigid Me- 
ridian, all things are frozen there, and the ocean waters 
become vast mountains and fields of ice. Let any sides of 
the Earth be turned into that Meridian and the result will 
be the same. The Glacial epoch and the Earth's central turn- 
ing prove each other. By reference to the illustration it will 
be seen that wherever the Earth has stopped to reverse its 
swaying motion, there glaciers have been formed, if water 
was present. A succession of glaciers is the result, and 
the extent and number of the Earth's lateral oscillations, 
during its last period, may be approximately ascertained 
by noting the different terminal moraines and marginal 
deposits on the Earth's surface. It is nothing but con- 
firmatory if the different moraines and deposits do not ex- 
tend to the same parallel of latitude or degree of longi- 
tude, because the reversing points of the oscillations would 
naturally vary in location, — besides, the waters of the 
overflowing oceans would not reach everywhere at each 
reversal. During these periods of transition it would be 
unavoidable that great storms should prevail of wind, and 
rain, and snow, before which any with which we have ac- 
quaintance as now transpiring would sink into insignifi- 
cance. 



THE GLACIAL EPOCH. 27 

The reason why the higher mountain peaks are always 
cold is because they present but a meager flattened surface 
t:»r the direct impinging of the sun's rays, resembling in 
this respect the polar regions, and they stand too high for 
heat to rim from the lower level of the Earth's surface, 
even at the equator. But if a whole continent were raised. 
or the whole Earth enlarged to the height of the moun- 
tain peaks, the same climatic conditions would result that 
prevail now. If a quantity of the sun's rays were concen- 
trated on a mountain peak, of any height, intense heat 
would be the result. 

Dead and dying volcanoes give no evidence whatever 
that the Earth is cooling off. As their activity gradually 
ceases rheir heat returns to its original latent condition in 
the Earth, though a portion of it takes the air route to get 
there. It is then ready to manifest its presence again upon 
the recurrence of any adequate exciting cause. These re- 
marks will also apply to the sun. There is a wild seismic 
action going on ince-santly in that vast body, which is 
doubtless caused by its repeated central turnings through 
all the ages, and which will be repeated forever in endless 
periods. lis tires will never become extinguished, for in 
so vast a body. 1.245.000 times that of the Earth, and its 
mass 674 times that of all the rest of the solar system: one 
of its volcanoes would probably equal 50.000 of the largest 
the Earth has ever had. or is capable of creating. 

And yet all of this heat is of no avail on the Frigid Me- 
ridian to prevent the forming of glaciers, because the body 
of the globe is interposed, and shuts off the action of heat 
along the Torrid Meridian, at the same time exposing it- 
self to the intense action of the former. 



MOUNTAIN PERIODS. 



If further evidence were needed to prove the Earth's* 
Third Motion it may be found in the existing Mountain 
chains. A superficial glance, even, at any large-sized 
school globe will show ranges of mountains in parallel 
sets running north and south, and other parallel sets run- 
ning east and west, general directions. All of these par- 
allel sets were created in successive periods of the world 
from each other, and each chain records a period of the 
Earth's central turning. The chains extending north and 
south mark those periods of the Earth when it was turned 
to its present position; the chains extending east and west 
mark the periods when the Earth was turned so as to re- 
verse the present position of the poles with the equatcr. 
The present Coast Range was probably created at the last 
central turn,— it being the youngest of all the chains. 
Nevertheless there may be localities of the Earth where 
chains of mountains may rise and fall with successive 
turnings. This idea is probably correct, for were it not, 
by this time, the Earth would be but a jumbled-up mass 
of broken mountains, and there are evidences of the fore- 
going fact now existing on the Pacific coast, but the dis- 
appearance of such mountains has been accounted for by 
the extraordinary theory that they have been jack-planed 
down by glacier ice! 

The 26>£ miles lying between contraction one way and 
expansion the other of the Earth, under the powers of 
centripetal and centrifugal force, upon its central turning, 



MOUNTAIN PERIODS. 29 

S3eras quite jause enough to account for the existence and 
disappearance of all mountains on or beneath the surface. 
T.'ie Mountains and The. Third Motion prove each other. 

Xo internal heat of the Earth had anything to do with 
the creating of Mountains, but the birth of the Mountains, 

under the action of the two laws, had everything to do 
with the heat. — creating or exciting it by attrition. All 
igneous action has been of a local character. — a result in- 
stead of a cause. Of course this action would occasion- 
ally reach to great depths in the interior of the Earth, and 
result in the uevelopnient of heat of an awfully intense 
•/haracter and on a grand scale, pouring forth, as Le Conte 
says, vast sheets or rivers of lava from wide fissures, ex- 
tending for mile-, mid establishing for a rime great vol- 
canoes. But the immense size of the Earth renders all 
these result- petty by comparison. The cooling off of the 
Earth is but local in its character. — that of a general ac- 
tion is but a fable, and simply a piece of the creation the- 
ory. 

Erosion does not mike mountains. — it does its best to 
destroy them. Ij attacks all things alike on the Earth's 
surface and it would be strange if it did not manufacture 
ikkv and then a hill, for some parts of the surface of the 
Earth are easier of erosion than others, and the hardest 
would naturally be left in prominence. 

One fact regarding existing mountains is generally over- 
looked in treating of the subject, and this is. that there 
are Mountains of great heights submerged beneath the 
waters of the oceans. Deep sea soundings have revealed 
that fact, and there are almost innumerable peaks rising 
just above the surface, constituting islands of every con- 
ceivable size and shape. A thorough investigation would 
doubtless bring to our knowledge the existence of exten- 
sive chains marking the submerged part of the Earth with 
as much regularity as that un sub merged. Previous to the 
last ventral turning of the Earth it is' doubtless true that 
thousands of these peaks towered aloft in silent grandeur, 
beheld by the wondering gaze of prehistoric man: and 
that there were green valleys and level plains between, 
populated with . beasts, and birds, and creeping things. 
The cattle lowed upon a thousand hills, and the air was 
fxlled with the music of feathered songsters. And so shall 
it be again, upon the next turning, for nature repeats her- 
self, forever and forever. 



CONTINENTAL ELEVATIONS. 



That continental elevations have had little or no influ- 
ence on the flora and fauna of the world is proved by the 
facts in the case. According to Le Conte, who gives the 
most recent and reliable results, the mean elevations are 
as follows : 

Europe, 984 feet; Asia and Africa, 1,640 feet; America, 
North and South, 1,083 feet; Australia, 820 feet. The 
mean height of all land is given as about 1,378 feet. 

If prevailing theories as to the cause of the Glacial pe- 
riod are correct, viz, the uplifting of continents, then Asia 
and Africa ought now to be much colder than Europe; 
and North and South America, in a large majority of its 
parts, much colder than Australia ; and really the lands of 
the north and south poles ought to be more torrid in their 
climates than any of the rest of them, for in these theories 
the influence of the sun has been left out of the account. 
But the facts are, that the very reverse of all this is the 
truth, and that the sun's influence has everything to do 
with the climates of the globe. If the sun's influence 
were entirely withdrawn, the Frigid Meridian would have 
the Earth in its icy grasp, and it would be frozen solid, 
and every living entity perish, for cold is — death, as heat 
is—life. 

Too great a refinement of science is sometimes as dan- 
gerous to truth as too little of it, — its sharp edge some- 
times whittles away the entire stick, and, after all is gone, 
still keeps up the motion and whittles on nothing. 



CONTINENTAL ELEVATIONS. 31 

The more direct the rays of the sun the warmer the 
climate; and the more oblique the rays of the sun the 
colder the climate, for the Earth's heat is entirely latent 
until excited to action by an adequate cause. There is no 
general active heat in the sun itself. Even its rays are 
cold. They strike the Earth like so many hammers, ex- 
citing the latent heat of the Earth. In entering a green- 
house their impact on the glass, in passing through it, 
readers the glass hot, by exciting its latent heat, and when 
those rays, still cold, strike the inside ground and plants 
their latent heat is developed, and their caloric, set free, 
warms the inside air. 

No raising of continents is going to freeze them, with- 
out a thin crust is set up edgewise, and no lowering of 
them is going to heat them, without they are put down in 
a hole, and no air was ever rendered, by miraculous or 
other means, hot enough to make a torrid climate on the 
frigid meridian. A reversing, and not an elevation, of con* 
tinents, will alone change their climatic conditions. 



• -.\V.y- ". 









POPULATION. 



Bat for the destructive power of the Earth's Tnir 1 Mo- 
tion, it would, ages upon age? ago; have been over-popu- 
lated. Darwin say? that "there is no exception to the 
•' rule that every organic ' being naturally increases at so 
44 high a rate that, if not destroyed, the Earth would soon 
44 be covered, by the progeny of a single pair. Even slow 
4 ; breeding man has doubled in twenty-live years, and at 
44 this rate iii less than a thousand years there would la- 
terally not be standing room for his progeny," And Mr. 
Edward C.lodd. in his Story of Creation, further says that 
" if all the offspring of the elephant, the slowest breeder 
* 4 known, survived, there would be in 750 years neariv 
44 19,000,000 elephants alive, descended from the first pair. 
44 If the eight or nine million eggs which the roe of a cod 
44 is said to contain developed into adult cod-hshes. the 
'* sea would quickly become a solid mass of them. So 
44 prolific is its progeny after progeny, that the common 
" house-fly is computed to produce 21,000.000 in a season: 
44 while so enormous is the laying power of the aphis, or 
44 plant-louse, that the tenth brood of one parent, without 
44 adding the products of all the generations which pre- 
4 * ceecl the tenth, would contain more ponderable matter 
44 than all the population of China, estimating this at 500,- 
44 000=000! 

44 It is the same with plants. If an annual plant pro- 
4i duced only two seeds yearly, and all the seedlings sur- 
vived and reproduced in like number, 1,000,000 plants 
u would be produced in twenty years from the single an- 
44 cestor. Should the increase be at the rare of fifty seeds 
"yearly, the result, if unchecked, would be to cover the 
44 whole globe in nine years, leaving uo room for other 
44 plants. The lower organisms multiply with astonishing 



POPULATION a 33 

" rapidity, some minute fungi increasing a billion fold in 
u a few hours, while the protocoecus or red snow, multi- 
'• plies so fast as to tinge many acres of snow with the 
< " crimson in a night." 

The theory commonly advanced to account for the pres- 
ent paucity of numbers of animate and inanimate life is 
thai -*• Moreorgmisms are born than survive." which fact 
is true enough, but is wholly inadequate to account for 
the situation, for the Earth is doubtless as old as Eternity. 
Scientific men would long ago have entertained this latter 
opinion, could they have harmonized that fact with the 
existing phenomena of the globe. And even now they are 
at their wits' ends to know "what is to become oi the pop- 
ulation of the Earth, so rapidly is it increasing. They 
even wink at the prospect of approaching bloody wars as 
justifiable means in thinning out the human population, 
little understanding that there is coming a time when the 
E.irth will nee:l all of its papulation. As stated first above, 
but for the central turning of the Earth it would have 
been o v e r - p :> p ul a ted ages upon a g e s a g o . a n d m a n w o u 1 d 
have been oblige:! to resort to a destruction of all human 
rights to maintain an existence, Th> paucity df> p9$ttJution 
he Third. Motion prove each o fl ier. Countless millions 
of time? has the bulk of the Eartii's population been swept 
out of physical existence by its central turning, and that 
periodical action will continue forever. In view of this 
awful destiny, it is better for man, the child of nature, to 
refrain from wars and the consequent murdering and phys- 
ical annihilation of each other, and to ''multiply and re- 
plenish the earth." 

To place the two theories in juxtaposition, one is a cre- 
ated young Earth, to account for the present paucity of 
population, with a growing fear that in the comparatively 
near future the Earth will be unable to sustain the natural 
inevitable increase: and the other is an eternal existing 
Earth, the third motion of which always has limited and 
always will limit its population of all kinds, and the ab- 
solute, knowledge of what is to come, putting to an end 
ail anxieties, saving that concerning the exact time of the 
event. These two theories apply to all the endless Uni- 
verses that pervade the boundless immensity of shoreless 
space. 



PHYSICAL DISTURBANCES AND 
CONSEQUENCES. 



As is well known, the present form of the Earth is not 
that of a perfect sphere. Its largest equatorial diameter 
exceeds the polar by about 26} ■£ miles. This is caused by 
centrifugal force acting on the revolving globe, distending 
its middle and contracting its polar sides. Upon a rever- 
sal of the poles and equator the Earth will reverse its form 
also. The present polar diameter will be extended and it? 
equatorial diameter contracted, until the 26)g miles differ- 
ence is again established as at present existing. Barring 
the action of the oceans* waters, this change alone will 
cause, at the time, a terrible breaking up and commotion 
of the globe, revolving at the rate of more than 1.000 mile? 
per hour. Its component rocks will be torn and crushed 
and ground, while whole continents will be disrupted, up- 
heaved, and sunk in the depths of the seas. Vast chain? 
of towering mountains will be thrown up with lofty peak? 
destined to stand for another lapse of ages. Mighty vol- 
canoes will be forced into existence again in strange parts 
of the Earth, caused by the grinding together of interior 
rocks. The vast fields and mountains of polar ice will be 
melted under the torrid heat of a tropical sun. and other 
vast fields of ice created at the new poles to remain for a 
period of ages, and other immense fields of ice created 
and destroyed, and re-created and as often destroyed, re- 
peatedly, during the temporary swaying of the Earth. 

All of the foregoing will not be done in a dav or vear. 



PHYSICAL DISTURBANCES AND CONSEQUENCES. 35 

but there will be a tremendous period of time before the 
Earth shall become settled to its normal position and mo- 
tion, and even then for long ages it will continue to mani- 
fest signs, through seismic action, of the great change 
through which it has passed, — signs the counterpart of 
those experienced to-day. For it must be borne in mind 
that when the Earth changes its position it also changes 
its motion to a direction ultimately at right angles with its 
previous motion. At first the motion may be described as 
spiral or twisting, and it is possible that as the Earth sways 
far around it is brought gradually, first, to a dead stand- 
still in its axial rotation, and second, to a temporary re- 
versal of its motion, if the power of axial momentum does 
not outlast the central oscillation. While this action may 
be a prolific cause of local disturbances, and result in the 
formation of vast glaciers, it is probably in no wise dis- 
turbed in its orbital motion, certainly not to any fatal ex- 
tent. The Power which handles this vast globe does it 
more easily than a school-boy does his ball at play, and 
the globe itself is more solid than one made by man of 
solid glass, if the theory of the Astronomers in this re- 
spect is correct. 

In the foregoing I have only mentioned those physical 
disturbances which are known to be inevitable upon the 
central turning of the Earth. There is another conse- 
quence which I believe will result from said turning. From 
the mists overhanging the wild rush of the world's con- 
tending oceans. — mixed with the impalpable motes arising 
from the attrition of the crushing, grinding rocks of the 
unsubmerged part of the Earth, I believe there will be 
thrown out, by centrifugal force, vast vapory rings which 
will encircle the revolving globe. In turning, the mag- 
netic currents will of course cross their previous direction 
at right angles, thus partially demagnetizing the Earth 
and permitting centrifugal force to overpower, to a lim- 
ited degree, the Earth's magnetic attraction. This 
new condition will gradually yield, however, as the 
Earth becomes more thoroughly magnetized in its new 



36 THE EARTH— ITS THIRD MOTION. 

condition, imtil. at last, it will overbalance the centrifugal 
force and recall, by its superior power of attraction, the 
surrounding rings. I believe the planet .Saturn to be a 
living illustration of this the _>ry. but it being much fur- 
ther from the sun than the Earth is. it is ne«»- arily slower 
of recovery. 

But there is a further consequence to be c on-idered in 
this connection, and one which will account for the exist- 
ence of the •• wanderers V of space. 

Should centrifugal force, aided by the near proximity of 
a neighboring planet, succeed in detaching an outlaying 
portion of one of the rings aforesaid, a new comet would 
be the result, which would go off in an orbit of its own, 
only to return again at long intervals revisiting the scene 
of its birthplace. The comet of 1SG1 was doubtless thrown 
off from the Earth at its last central turn. It returned in 
that year to pay a visit to its mother. 

The asteroids, aerolites, meteors and other like bodies 
are also a result of the same cause, mere debris thrown off 
from central turning planets. — but remaining within the 
attractive influences of this solar system. 

pJust when the Earth experienced its last central turning, 
and at what future time the next may be expected may be 
approximated with a certain degree of accuracy by a se- 
ries of observations at the 284th degree of longitude east 
from Greenwich, near Quito, Ecuador. South America. In 
my opinion the equator will become fully rounded out to a 
perfect circle before another central turning. I think that 
the constant effort which the Earth is making to accom- 
plish the foregoing result is the main cause of the inces- 
sant seismic action going on, and that it will be found upon 
proper Investigation that the equator is rising at the point 
indicated. The rate of Its rising ascertained" the informa- 
tion sought may be given by simple calculations. It can 
at least be approximately ascertained what time has 
elapsed since the Earth's last central turn. It is now about 
twenty-four twenty-fifths of the time, judging by the 
E arth's equatorial measurement. 



SUMMARY OF PROOF. 



- 1st. The present equator is flattened on the two oppo- 
site sides located at 104° and at 284° east from Greenwich, 
respectively. 

2d. The flora and fauna of an ultra- tropical climate 
surrounds the Earth, wherever there is land, regardless of 
present climatic conditions, at a distance midway between 
the aforesaid flattened sides. 

3d. Traces of vast glacial action in regions remote from 
the present poles and "now under the rays of a temperate 
and torrid s;:n. 

4th. Transfer of the oceans away from their former 
water-lines. 

5th. Seismic action, under centrifugal force, of the 
Earth in its endeavor to round out the present equator to 
a perfect circle. 

6th. Existence of living and extinct volcanos. caused by 
great heat-creating attrition, 

7th. Existence of vast chains of mountains which have 
been crowded out of the Earth as it changed form. 

3th. The presence of immense masses of the cast-off 
debris of the planets in the solar system, of all sizes and 
shapes, from the meteor to the asteroid, and the occasional 
return of some of it under the Earth's attraction. 

9th. The closing of the orbits of various comets within 
the influence of this solar system, showing that those com- 
ets originated here, and are of like substance of the rings 
of the planet Saturn, and which rings are unnatural for 
permanent existence, if the testimony of the rest of our 
planets is credited. 

10th. Paucity of population, caused by the bulk perish- 
ing at each central turning of the Earth. 



APPENDIX. 



I reprint herewith certain extracts, which I have cut at 
random from the newspapers of the day, which are of in- 
terest as evidence confirming statements herein before 
made concerning buried cities, prehistoric man, nonexist- 
ing nationalities, existing glaciers, and the south pole. 
New discoveries are fast being made which are eclipsing 
those recorded in educational works, and which tend to 
confirm the theory of the Third Motion. Time will doubt- 
less make all clear. 

THE FLOOD. 

The following is the bible account of the flood after the 
eliminating of all extraneous matter, viz: 

Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters 
was upon the earth. 

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second 
month, the seventeenth" day of the month, the same day 
were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and 
the windows of heaven were opened. 

And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty 
nights. 

And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth ; 
and all the high hills that were under the whole heaven 
were covered. 

Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail ; and ihe 
mountains were covered. 

And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and 
fifty days. 

And God made a wind to pass over the earth and the 
waters assuaged. 



APPENDIX. 39 

The fountains also of the deep and the windows of 
heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was re* 
strained. 

And the waters returned from off the earth continually; 
and after the end of the one hundred and fifty days the 
waters were abated. 

And the waters decreased continually until the tenth 
month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month. 
were the tops of the mountains seen. 

And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, 
in the first mouth, on the first day of the month, the waters 
were dried up from off the earth. 

And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth 
day of the month, was the earth dried. — Extracted from 
Genesis, chapters 7 and 8. 

The foregoing is probably the oldest historical record in 
existence of the physical disturbances caused by the most 
recent of the Earth's central revolutions, or third motions, 
and being such, is among the invaluable evidences which 
stand as proof of the new theory, for there is no effect 
without an adequate cause. 

Concerning the record itself, it may be that of an awful 
legend, descending from generation to generation, through 
the dark unlettered ages of man's prehistoric existence, 
from the time of its occurrence until caught up by the pen 
of the historian, and it may be otherwise — the world is 
judge. — Jfarshil Wheeler, in The Oregon State Journal, 



ERRORS OF GEOLOGY AXD ASTRONOMY. 

The grand error of all investigators in treating of the 
Earth, the solar system and the universe of space, has 
been in assuming that they were all created existences. 
Utterly unable to find a foothold on absolute nothingness 
to commence the creation of the Universe, they have been 
driven, by early erroneous influences, to take their stand 
upon the infinitesimally minute platform of the Atom, 
thereby assuming that it is an eternal existence, in flat 
contradiction of the assertion that t; the earth was without 



40 THE EARTH— ITS THIRD MOTION. 

form and void,*' for nothing can exist without form, and 
form destroys void. 

With the Atom in hand they have proceeded through 
the most evanescent, impel ceptible next-to-nothings. 
through a something-to-be, and non-existing what-nots, 
wasting untold countless billions of ages, to produce the 
Atom. Proceeeing thus, step by step, to create the Uni- 
verse, they draw out the long process uutil Eternity itself 
grows gray, and lapses into the imbecilit}^ of second child- 
hood. 

Through all the ages of man's investigations, the heavens 
have been raked over and ransacked in the vain desire of 
finding some adolescent youth in process of formation, or 
some old world going to destruction, to confirm their the- 
ory of creation. But the nebulas all became resolved into 
gtars, the comets remain in statu quo, if they don't lose 
their tails in contact with some planet or moon, and an 
occasional astral body retires out of the instrumental sight, 
behind some of the multitudinous opaque planets revolv- 
ing around the astral suns, and all goes serenely until that 
bright particular star looms up again, to the investigator's 
confusion. 

Having thus cieated the absolutely countless universes, 
which are as numberless as space is boundless, they find ' 
themselves with an earth on hand, supplanting the original 
Atom, and the next thing to do is to create life on its sur- 
face. Where that life comes from, or how it gets here, 
the scientist is at last frank enough not to guess, — he only 
asserts that it had a beginning here. He is led to this 
conclusion because he can find no trace of it beyond a cer- 
tain period back among the ages and their representative 
rocks of ozoics and arys. But in the creation of animate 
and inanimate existences he has one grand advantage to 
begin with; he has Matter! After bringing to his aid 
Power and its resultants, Force and Energy, in some in- 
scrutable way he makes a mixture of these so-called ele- 



APPENDIX. 41 

ments, and the result is an Oldhamia! — a seaweed! 
Another little mixture, with a little change of method, 
and lo! a Strophomena! — a lampshell is produced! But 
during these processes more countless ages upon ages have 
trooped away into the eternal realm of the everlasting 
past, and he has but just begun his creation of life-forms 
ivpbn the Earth. But with the Oldhamia and Stropho- 
mena, iu place of the Atom in hand, he proceeds, by the 
help of another series of interminable ages, to run the 
wbole gamut of Darwinian evolution, until, at last, he has 
evolved st the survival of the fittest v — an oak tree and a 
tailless Man! By this time Eternity must be dead, and 
buried in the everlasting cemetery of the gods. And these 
are the teachings of modern science! From those of the 
ancient variety, heaven defend us all! 

Some theorists, bolder than the rest, drawing a little 
nearer to reason and proportionately farther from revela- 
lation, start the creation of the worlds from an eternally 
existing amorphous mass of cloud-like vapory matter, 
which had floated forever through the regions of bound- 
less space. By degrees an eternal law takes hold of the 
endless mass and commences rolling up white hot balls — 
to cool off! What this eternal creative law had been 
busy about, previous to starting in on this work, is not 
even suggested. This theory, like the other, is but an ex- 
hibition of the lamentable weakness of the finite in deal- 
ing with the infinite. 

This whole theory of a creation, so far as the worlds of 
space are concerned, is one stupendous error; and so far 
as the entities of the earth are concerned, a huge mistake. 

The universes are the expression of Eternal Permanence. 
Without them there is no material evidence of an intelli- 
gent, harmonious Eternal Principle. 

There never teas a first world nor a first universe. The 
universes were never created; they have always existed. 
Reason proves this from the following facts, viz : Space is 



42 THE EARTH—ITS THIRD MOTION, 

boundless; the universes pervade all space.; they are there- 
fore countless — no beginning nor end to their numbers; 
therefore impossible of creation, and therefore eternal ex- 
istences. 

The universes are all subject to the laws of eternal mo- 
tion devoid of all friction, which proves that they are 
pervaded by the principle of eternal life, and are there- 
fore alive. — not dead. 

They cannot gain anything from the emptiness of space, 
and they cannot lose anything. The debris thrown off at 
any one time, by the component individuals of a system. 
is forever retained within the influence of that system, 
and at another time regained. This is under the action of 
rhythmical and of regular law. 

All animate and inanimate life upon the Earth is but the 
expression of her sustaining power forever. It is an eter- 
nal quality. 

There never was a first man; he never was created ; he 
has always existed, and will always exist. As an individ- 
ual his existence is rhythmical; as a whole his existence 
is eternal. 

Evolution is a mistake, if taken in the ascending, scale ; 
if in the reverse, it is a partial truth. If misfortune en- 
virons man for ages, causing disuse of mental and physi- 
cal belongings, he will degenerate towards the monkey; 
but the monkey can never progress towards the man under 
any circumstances. 

That which is true of man is also true of all living en- 
tities sustained and nourished by the Earth. 

There is a prime family of beasts, birds and fishes of 
eternal existence. Secondaries are but the melancholy 
representatives of long disuse. The bird that never uses 
its wings will lose them — the extinct auc is an instance; 
but the prime auc — the wild goose — still lives in perfec- 
tion. There is a tribe of Indians on Puget Sound, who, 
for many succeeding generations, have sat in canoes and 



APPENDIX. 43 

fished so steadily that thty have now almost entirely lost 
the use of their dwindled-up legs. Their brains are de- 
generating towards the monkey. 

If evolution ever produced man, the same process would 
still be going on, fur nature's laws are imperishable, and 
there would be no necessity in nature for changing the 
process. Man has never witnessed that evolution. The 
growth of a seed is not evolution; it is the slender but 
potent thread connecting the rhythm of eternal existence. 

The theory of evolution is but that of a slow process of 
creation, beginning with the Atom away back before the 
alleged creation of the first world of unnumbered throngs 
of the universes pervading eternal space, which creation 
has been shown to be absolutely improbable. 

The universes themselves give no evidence of ever hav- 
ing been other than what they are now. That those vast 
bodies occasionally throw off uebulous masses is more 
than probable. But sooner or later those masses are re- 
called. They never originate a new world, nor get out of 
reach of the home influence. Such masses are invariably 
thrown off upon the central turning of some planet or 
sun. From eternity that action has been going on, and it 
will continue forever. 

Let us accept the existences of eternity as we find them, 
and not endeavor to rob the Eternal of the infinite glory 
which blazes forever in that fathomless profound which 
has neither beginning nor ending. — Marshal Wheeler, in The 
Oregon State Journal. 

A BURIED CITY DISCOVERED. 



RUINS OF A FORGOTTEN RACE FOUND IN HONDURAS. 

The " buried city*' referred to in the following account, 
was doubtless built millions of years ago. when the Earth 
occupied its present position. Subsequent to its building 
the Earth turned upon its center and the city was thrown 
into the frigid zone of the South American pole and buried 



44 THE EARTH— ITS THIRD MQTIOX. 

in ice. A repetition of the Earth's central turning has 
thrown the city again into the torrid zone and exposed it 
to view. 

The Los Angeles Times of July S. 1889, published the 
following special dispatch from Tegucigalfa, Honduras, 
from A. J. Miller. He said : 

It was not until now that I was at liberty to inform you 
that 1 had made a diseovery of a buried city hitherto un- 
known to the civilized woild. it being necessary to take 
precautions against others robbing me of the fruits of the 
rind. The discovery was made during our sojourn at Olan- 
cho. about a month since, and I have just obtained from 
the Honduras government the exclusive right of excava- 
tion. The ruins are located in the new department of 
Mosquito, about 150 miles from the mouth of the Patko 
river, and ten miles from the mouth of the Guampoo. one 
of its main tributaries. They are approached only by 
river, no path or trail passing within three leagues. 

The Indians of this region are the Poyas. and none of 
their traditions point to the existence of such ruins, so 
that they antedate their oldest civilization. The ruins are 
partly buried by the debris of ages, and covered by an 
immense forest. They are perhaps two miles square, and 
the greater portion is in an excellent state of preservation. 
Our casual inspection developed not only evidences of a 
former city partly surrounded by a wall, but an immense 
workshop where ancient Indian sculptors manufactured. 
Many beautiful designs were observed. White granite 
entered largely into all the implements and utensils found. 
and this presents a curious study, as no stone of this class 
is found anywhere in this immediate section of Honduras. 

Among the relics, in good preservation, were found im- 
mense tablets of stone weighing 800 pounds, granite 
bowls on three legs weighing forty pounds, fortillas. blocks 
of various sizes weighing 25^to 600 pounds: urns and vases, 
chased in curious hieroglyphics, are ornamented with the 
heads of snakes, turtles, tigers or rude human forms. The 
carving and general ornaments were similar in some re- 
spects to those found about Capan and Quiergua. They 
are undoubtedly very ancient. 



TIME— ETERXITY. 



Time is a purely human invention, and is measured pri- 
marily by the motions of the Earth. — one revolution on its 
own axis, from west to east, is ealle I \ y\ and one rev- 
olution in its orbit, around the sun. is called a year. In 
due course of events there will he another measurement 
Hie perioQiml time, consisting of an aggregation of 
years, expressing the lapse between the Earth's central 
turnings. 

The foregoing are all local motion-. The general mo- 
tion of the whole solar system. : : : . the Histelli tion of 
Hercules, may sometimes become known ■;-.: time. 
Ms >riiil will have to first be ietermine I y those sublime 
investigators. — the Astronomers, than whom no more con- 
scientiously faithful men ever lived. 

Time is divisional measurement in eternity. The error 
which mankind has made was in a-suming that the reali- 
ties of eternity would never be experienced until man had 
ased the bourne of physical existence, and become a 
spirit. The fact is. that he is now living in. and is one of 
the component things of. eternity. He is surrounded on 
every side with its existences: if his eyes are turned to 
the earth he sees one. and every living thing on the earth 
discloses the same, and the apparently dead tell the same 
tale. And when his glance is cast upward in the dark, 
cool hours of the cloudless night, he beholds in the infi- 
nite universes of space the entiui — : Jteraal existence, 
hoary with the lapse of unnumberable :_- nd yet 
shining with an effulgence of youth forever unquenchable. 

There is no past, or future: all is on- eternal present, 
and this is the G-o:l-like birthright of every human sing, 
and the grandeur of this eternal life ourreaches all riuite 
conception. 



CHILDREN OF THE BUST. 



RECENT DISCOVERIES IN THE LAND OF THE INCAS — A 
NATION EDUCATED IN THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 

The following, published iu the Oregonian July 21st. 
1889, is a brief history of a nationality which was 
broken up and frozen out of their country at the time 
of the burial in ice of the foregoing described city. The 
account is of invaluable archaeological interest in this con- 
nection. The nation appears to have occupied too great 
an extent of territory to be entirely wiped out of existence : 

••It was for the purpose of learning the history of the 
Inca empire, which has never yet been published in the 
English language, that I spent some years among the 
ruins; and to complete my work it is necessary that I 
should again make a visit to the land of the Incas. But 
one translation has been made of La Vega's work and that 
is very unsatisfactory and inaccurate : a great deal of his- 
tory is given, but the work is full of gross exaggerations. 
My work is partially completed and I am able to give some 
facts about the wonderful Incas which have never before 
been placed before the public. 

The extent of the Inca empire was from 4 degrees north 
latitude to 34 degrees south latitude, about 3.000 miles in 
length, and some 700 miles in width, on an average, or 
nearly as large as the United States. It was founded in 
the year 600 , A. D.. by Manco Capac and his sister wife. 
Mama Ocllo. There is a tradition that they were sent by 
the Sun to civilize the Indians of the Andes, who had be- 
come warlike and cannibalistic in their customs and hab- 
its. Seemingly prior to this period a vast empire had spread 
over the table lands of Bolivia and Peru, the ruins of which 
are seen on all sides to-day, consisting of cut stone, copper im- 
pressions of hinges, carvings, temples, etc., which all antedate 
the Inca empire. Even the Indians prior to the Inca period 
claim that these ruins belonged to an extinct but wholly civilized 
race of people , probably analogous to the times of the Mound 
Builders of North America. The most prominent center of 
these is Tiahuanco. At the time of the conquest by the 
Incas. the great Indian centers of the Andes were at Pa- 
chamanac, thirty miles south of Lima, at Old Huanaco, 
which is in the heart of the Andes in the center of Pera. 



APPENDIX, 47 

and at Q tito. in Ecuador. In these places to-day ore to be 
seen the ruins of the old temples of the Indians and by the side 
of then the newer temples erected by the Ineds. 

The tradition is that Capac was sent by the Sun and 
placed on the islands of Lake Titaeaca. and these islands 
are held sacred to-day by the Incas. These people were 
ordered to take a golden wedge, which was given them, 
and carry it northward until it should leave their hands 
and disappear in the ground. At this place they were to 
erect a city, which should be their capital, and should 
commence their mission of civilizing the Indians, teach- 
ing them the science of agriculture, the art of manufac- 
turing cloth and necessary articles for their domestic com- 
fort. The city was built. They termed it Cuzco. and the 
ruins of it exist to-day in upper Peru. They called the 
country Tiahuantin Suyo. which means " the whole of the 
world." Prescott has always termed it the Inca empire, 
and that is what it has always been known by. I prefer 
the original name, and call them Suyos for short. 

Xowas to the government of the Incas. The word Inca 
means royalty, merely. It was ruled over by a king, one 
of the Incas. who was the oldest son. and who was father 
of the whole country. Therefore it could be called a 
patriarchial government, as well as a dynasty. The king- 
prescribed just laws for the people, governing even their 
most minute domestic duties, prescribing their food suf- 
ficient for each meal. The land belonged to the reigning 
Inca. and each person was allotted so much to work each 
year, the products of which did not belong to the laborer, 
but to the king. These products were placed in large 
store-houses in differents parts of their kingdom, where 
at certain intervals each family was allotted its share for 
the ensuing year or period. The artisans deposited their 
manufactured products in like manner, and they were al- 
lotted in the same way. 

In their judicial department, while the king was a su- 
preme court in himself, yet the country was ruled over by 
courts — one inferior, one supreme in each department. 
Below these were courts similar to our justices* courts, 
where cases were tried by arbitration and punishment 
meted out according to the decision of the official, or of 
the judges. The greatest punishment — the one that seemed 
to predominate among these people — was the striking of 
the criminal upon the upper part of the back, between the 
shoulders, with a stone, which sometimes produced death. 



43 THE EARTH— ITS THIRD MOT 1 OX. 

Their laws were classified as follows : 

1. Municipal laws, treating of the revenues of the dif- 
ferent departments. 

2. Agrarian laws, treating of the division of the land 
among' the different departments anil the people. 

3. The public law. specifying the prominent division- of 
public work which benefitted the people in common. Un- 
der this law they had a superintendent of highway.-, a 
superintendent of bridges and a superintendent of aque- 
ducts. 

4. A law that^stated the arrangement of the time of la- 
bor which belonged to the different provinces, towns and 
individuals. 

5. Brotherhood laws, providing for mutual assistance in 
the cultivation of the earth and construction of building.-. 

6. Laws of economy. These dealt with the ordinary 
personal expenses and prescribed the quantity of food and 
clothing to be used by each individual. These laws also 
ordered that two or three time- a month the people of 
each neighboring town should dine together in the pres- 
ence of official governors, that the}' should join in mili- 
tary and popular amusements at the time with a joyful 
mind, to root out all feuds and passions and give peace en- 
tire reign. 

7. Laws in favor of the sick or maimed. These law- 
ordered the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the crippled, the 
deformed, and all the infirm to be supported from the 
public funds; also that these unfortunates should be as- 
sembled two or three times a month to feasts and public 
dinners, where there should be general rejoicing, for the 
time forgetting in part their miserable condition. 

8. The law of hospitality, which prescribed means of 
supporting travelers or strangers in different parts of the 
empire at the expense of the public. 

9. Household laws, regulating the work of the individ- 
uals, prescribing even for the child 5 years of age an oc- 
cupation proportionate to his strength and physical ability. 
This law. however, was often changed if it was noticed 
that a child had talents in another direction. Under the 
same laws it was ordained that inhabitants should eat and 
make merry with open doors, so that the minister of jus- 
tice might have liberty to visit them. There were officials 
called superintendents of the pueblas. who visited very 
frequently the temples, the public buildings and the pri- 
vate buildings, watching the order, neatness and well 



APPENDIX. 49 

doing of the people, punishing the unclean and lazy with 
blows upon the arms and feet.'and praising in public those 
specially clean and neat. 

The criminal code consisted of thirty-seven sections, the 
laws being very severe, but just. Among the penalties for 
crime were : 

Rebellion against the king, extermination. 

Blasphemy, death. 

Highway robber}^, torture and then death. 

Abortion, death for principal and accomplice. 

Disobedient sons to be punished in public by their fath- 
ers. 

Insolence to the authorities, imprisonment. 

Attempt to escape by criminals, imprisonment. 

Anv woman committing adultery was put to death. 

Robbing from a son of an Inca, death, but robbing from 
a person not an Inca was not punished. 

Officers who allowed a prisoner to escape had the same 
imnishment inflicted on them that the prisoner was sen- 
tenced to suffer. 

Breaking the law in any way was regarded as an insult 
to their gods as well as to their king. 

Their military department was very large and efficient. 
While it was very weak at first, yet it developed into one 
of the largest and most determined ever known. Like 
most other nations, they pushed their conquests into the 
most remote regions. Their motto was always •* Peace 
" and good will to men.'- yet "woe betide the nation that 
refused the Inca yoke. In order to have a well-regulated 
army the law claimed every man as a soldier, and he was 
trained in the arduous tactics of the empire two or three 
times a month. The army was noted for its sobriety, civ- 
ility, subordination and the tranquility with which mem- 
bers met death at the post of duty. But while so much 
military duty was exacted of all men, their trades never 
suffered for want of attention except in one long continued 
strife, for a rotary system was adopted allowing a soldier 
to return to his home once in three months to attend to 
his domestic duties and work at his trade, the leaves of 
absence being regulated by the severity of the war being- 
waged. The commander-in-chief was the reigning Inca; 
immediately beneath him was the general, who had his 
lieutenants, and the rest were divided in the following 
order: Every 5.000 men were under a major-captain and 
his lieutenant; the half of this number was placed under 



53 THE EARTH -ITS THIRD 

a captain and his lieutenants. These divisions were fur- 
ther divided into battalions, regiments and companies. 

with their respective commanders. Each division bad its 
ensign bearer, its trumpeter aud drummer. The men 
were armed v\ ith wooden and copper swords, the copper 
being tempered, by some process now unknown, until it 
was as hard and as tine as our cum moo >teel, war club- of 
copper, lances with copper heads, stone and copper axes. 
slings, and. in rare instances, bows and arrows. The 
movements of the armies were regulated by drums and 
trumpets. 

All the Incas were trained in the most Spartan-like 
manner for the field of battle, each oue being in the armv 
from the time he was 1(3 years old until he had arrived at 
the age of 70. When he had completed his military edu- 
cation at the capital an army was called together and he 
was placed at its head to gain his first victory or suffer his 
first defeat. If victorious he was at once accounted a 
great warrior, but if defeated the people placed little con- 
fidence in him. It did not take long to collect an army. 
as the Incas had four great roads leading out from their 
capital, over which the king's orders were despatched with 
great rapidity, sometimes over 150 miles a day being cov- 
ered by the couriers. These roads were paved with flag- 
stones, and were from twelve to fifty feet in width. The 
road from Cuzco to Quito was the most remarkable ever 
constructed. It was channeled from the crests of moun 
tainous passes, cut through solid rocks, ravines and preci- 
pices, with solid masonry and sometimes suspension 
bridges, maguey and osier woods. This road was about 
1,500 miles in length. The other long road led to the 
south, then west of the capital to the ocean, and from 
thence north along the west to Quito, over the now arid 
sand hills and deserts. Xearly the whole length of this 
road was protected by a high wall in places: gardens lined 
the side of the road, whose luscious perfume refreshed 
the weary soldier or messenger as he hastened along to do 
the king's bidding. Along these grand highways, about 
a league apart, were placed small post houses which shel- 
tered the messenger who was to travel to the next post as 
quick as he could, and so on. until the message had 
reached its destination. In the same manner delicious 
fruits, flesh, fish, etc., were placed at the king's disposal. 
Which came from the remotest parts of the kingdom. Also 
at intervals were large granaries and store-houses, filled 



APPENDIX. 51 

with food and clothing for the soldiers, so that they should 
not suffer with the change of temperature or elevation in 
their journeyings. 

When they waged war they were as saving of their en- 
emies' lives and property as of their own; not that they 
might be reserved for sacrifices, as with the Aztecs of 
Mexico, but for the purpose of civilizing them. "We 
must spare our enemies," said an Inca prince to his sol- 
diers, "or it will be our loss, since they and all their prop- 
erty will soon be ours." As the war proceeded they held ar- 
mistices for the purpose of negotiating for peace, and when 
the war was over, as soon as their late foes acknowledged 
obedience to the Incas, the conquerors did everything in 
their power to reconcile them to the Inca customs. The 
chief was taken, with his children, to Cuzco, where the 
young sons were educated by the wise men in the Inca 
university, and the conquered chief was recognized as 
governor of the territory newly acquired by the conquest. 
But should the new governor remain rebellious, he w r as 
removed from his office and he and his people were scat- 
tered over the empire. The Incas conquered in order to 
reclaim and civilize, as they had been ordered by their 
sun god, and as soon as the conquered adapted themselves 
to the Iuca rule the}' were left in their territory, where the 
Incas erected temples to the sun, and founded schools in 
which were taught the universal language of the empire, 
rudimentary arithmetic and military tactics. Then they 
sent one of their statisticians^ take the statistics of the 
newly acquired province and teach the people the arts of 
agriculture and manufacture. By this mild treatment the 
spirit of royalty entered into the bosom of the savage, 
and he became as peaceful as though he had always been 
in the Inca household. In this manner they enlarged their 
kingdom until it reached its vast proportion as given 
above, and contained a population, according to the chron- 
icle s, of between 20,0.0,000 and 30,000,000 people. 

When their population became thus dense, their plains 
and valleys being occupied, and the desert land being irri- 
gated by a wonderful system of aqueducts, they com- 
menced terracing the mountains, so that the sides could 
be used for cultivation, and to-day these terraces stand as 
monuments that compare favorably with, if they do not 
surpass in grandeur, the great work of the Egyptians. 
The traveler of to-day, as he nears the foothills or passes, 
or enters the mountains, notices sustaining walls for terrace 



52 THE EARTH— ITS THIRD MOTION. 

farms which covered all of the Andes of Peru in the first 
and partially in the second ranges, from the snow line 
down to the plain. Some of these farms are used to-day. 
but the majority of them have been suffered to fall into 
disuse. 

One other department of industry was known to this 
nation which was not known to any other people of the 
western hemisphere, and that was the science of naviga- 
tion. They navigated not only their rivers, but the coast 
from Quito tolquiqui. Their ships they termed " balsas.** 
and they had sometimes one and sometimes two sails, and 
were seen by Pizarro and his companions when they first 
discovered Peru. 

A word as to the industries of this remarkable people. 
In their agriculture they had a grand system of irrigation 
by which they redeemed a great portion of the desert 
plain of the coast. They terraced the mountains and fer- 
tilized the plains, using for this purpose guano, which 
they obtained from the neighboring islands. Their pro- 
ducts were the potato, coco, from which comes the cocaine 
of to-day, and which they always used as a food stuff, 
chewing it; maize, and on the coast plains they raised 
cotton and wool. Their system of agriculture was greatly 
advanced in regard to the propagation of plants, lotating 
of crops, and systematic laying out of lands." 



MUIK THE EXPLOKER. 



AN INTERESTING TALK ABOUT THE WONDERS OF ALASKA 
— THE HOME OF THE ELEPHANT. 

The evidence, afforded by tne following narrative of 
Professor Muir, is conclusive that the present north pole 
was once directly upon the equator and under the heat of 
the torrid zone. The following dispatch from San Fran- 
cisco appeared in the Oregonian July 7, 1889 : 

John Muir, of this State, is recognized as a scientist all 
over this coast. He has a personal acquaintance in Port- 
land and elsewhere in the Xorthwest, where he has stopped 
en route to Alaska. 

Muir says that he has by no means yet completed his 
explorations in Alaska, and that in regard to certain ele- 
phant remains there, the bridging of Behring Sea and 
other matters, he hopes soon to add information that will 



APPENDIX. 53 

b? of great value to science. Although the bridging of 
Bearing Straits has been widely ridiculed. Muir is inclined 
to think that such a feat will one day be accomplished. 

He says : " Senator Stanford's girdle of steel around the 
earth via Bearing sea is a perfectly feasible scheme. 
Bearing Straits can be bridged. It is only sixty miles 
across at the narrowest place, and there are three islands 
sirang along in it. This would divide the bridge up into 
four divisions. But. besides this, the water is very shal- 
low. In many places it is not over twenty feet deep. I 
undertake to say that if a man was strong enough to take 
one of our California redwood trees in his hands he could 
pat it down anywhere over the GOO miles of Behring Sea 
and yet have 100 feet of it left above the water. This 
shows how easy it would be to bridge the straits. The 
<>nly trouble would be from floating icebergs, but that 
could oe easily overcome by constructing swinging bridges, 
like they have across the river at Chicago. In this way 
the strait- could be kept clear all the time, and trains of 
cars could run right along. 

•• There are so many strange things in Alaska." added 
the discoverer of the Muir glacier. " that have not yet 
come to the knowledge of the public, that one who has 
>een them hesitates where to begin. Elephant remains are 
found all over the great valley of the Yukon. As a matter of 
fact, they are found everywhere throughout the great western 

lope of Alaska. Dana and Sir Charles Lyle startled the 

world by announcing that hairy frozen elephants were found 

wedged among the Siberian icebergs, but scarcely anybody 

knows that throughout Alaska are the remains of countless 

thousc lastodons. You can dig them out and fend them 

on the surface anywhere. I saw hundreds of them , possibly, on 

■t trip, and I am now anxiously trying to get up there 

to complete my investigations. So thick are the elephant 

Ins that the native Indians on finding them, buried par- 

in the ground^ decided they were some kind of great mole 

:■■ in the soil. This is the story given me. I col- 

i lot of remains. The collecting of elephant tusks every 

ner, is a regular business in Siberia, just oner Behring 

We hare just as many of them on the Alaska side as 

they ever i\ \ria. Ages ago great herds of elephants 

roamed over these shores. Perhaps they existed down to a com- 
paratively recent date, too, for the hairy bodies and well-pre- 
served bones were evidences of that." 



54 THE EARTH— ITS THIRD MOT I OX. 

Portlanders will remember the lecture delivered in th:it 
city about six years ago. in which Professor Muir gave 
quite a vivid description of the Muir and other glaciers, 
hut. so far os known to your correspondent, his own ver- 
sion of how he found the one that bears his name has 
never before been published. 

He says: "It was in 1^73 that I first went up there. Tn 
ray course along the Alaskan coast I followed the chait of 
old General Vancouver, the British explorer, who. ninety- 
three years ago. turned his prows into those unknown seas. 
I found his chart singularly correct. Every little bay and 
Inlet was correctly marked. There are thousands of islands 
up there, too. and I was constantly surpiised to see how 
accurate he had all of them down. Finally, when I got 
away up in the vicinity of Cross Sound. I met an Indian 
who told me that from that on I would have to take my 
own wood. I was astonished at this, for ever> where for 
hundreds of miles on our route we had seen nothing but 
the densest kinds of forests. Well. I told him all right, to 
go ahead and cut some wood, and he and a lot more did 
so. and put it on board. TTe then went ahead, and pretty 
soon we struck the entrance to what seemed a great bay. 
I looked at Vancouver's chart, and couldn't rind it marked 
there. There was no mention of it anywhere. The shores 
all about, as far as I could ^ee. were bare. The whole 
country was denuded. Some half-petrified stumps and 
pieces of stone could be seen, and that was all. We 
steamed up the bay for forty miles, and there found the 
©Teat glacier which now bears my name." 



A PBEHISTOBIC 3IYSTEEY. 



A PETRIFIED BOY FOUND FIVE HUNDRED FEET BELOW 
THE SURFACE. 

The following account, and the four succeeding ones, 
are chiefly valuable as proofs that the race of man ante- 
dates, by millions of years, any history we Lnave of his 
former existence. The following is a dispatch to the 
San Francisco Examiner from Denver. Colorado, dated 
August 11. 1SS9: 

A remarkable story reached here to-day from Aspen. 
Colorado, regarding an unexpected rind in one of the 
principal mines of "A-pen Mountain. Late last Thursday 



APPENDIX. m 

fti^'it tli e ni£ lit shift in the Minnie m'ne. Mr. Donnelly, 
C. W. Maekey. Charles E. Taylor and C. W. Gilflllan, put 
In two th rty-inch holes in the breast of the 500-foot 
level of the mine and fired them just before leaving for 
the surface. On returning to the mine they found that 
the two blasts had broken into a cavern, the extent and 
dimensions of which they proceeded to explore. Going 
In a few feet they discovered that the walls were covered 
with crys'alized lime and lead, which glittered like a cloth 
of diamonds in the flicker! eg candle light. Here and 
there little stalactites hung from the canopied ceiling, and 
the lime formation resembled lace and frieze work of 
wondrous beauty. Going further in they found that the 
cave had a descent of about twenty degrees, down which 
they groped their way. The walls would be quite narrow 
in places, then widen out as much as twenty feet, forming 
rooms and chambers grand beyond description. 

They had entered about 200 feet when they found on the 
dusty floor of the cavern a frog, which at first looked to 
be alive, but upon picking it up Mr. Donnelly found it to 
be dead, but in a splendid state of preservation. 

A little further on a stone ax was picked up. Upon 
close examination it was found to be flint, and the eye was 
tilled with dirt and dust, which was easily removed. How 
it got there was a mystery that not only puzzled them, but 
as all men who work underground are more or less super- 
stitious, they were not a little scared. Going a little far- 
ther, they came to a steep declivity of about 45 degrees, 
down which they slid until they reached at the bottom a 
pool of clear, sparkling water about eighteen inches deep. 
They crossed the pool, and had to climb an ascent on the 
other side of about the same grade and extent as the one 
just passed. Reaching the top, they found a large cham- 
ber. The water dripped from the side and overhead, and 
disappeared through the crevices of the floor. There was 
quite a stiff breeze blowing, and they had to shield their 
candles with their hands, making progress necessarily 
quite slow. The floor was a brownish muck, which was 
Very stick}". 

Mr. Gilflllan started a little to the left of the party and 
kept walking towards one side of the room, when he sud- 
denly stopped and exclaimed, w; Great God, there sits a 
boy." 

The rest of the party were soon at his side, and sure 
enough there did sit a boy or something human. The 



56 THE EARTH— ITS THIRD MOT I OX. 

head was resting on the knees and the arms were drawn 
around the lower legs, Indian fashion. At the side of the 
figure was another stone ax and a stone receptacle some- 
thing like a bread bowl. The body was lar^e and well 
developed, the musele3 showing very plainly in all part-. 
Upon touching the body the sand and dust would crumble 
and run down the sides to the ground. In undertaking to 
lift him the arms came off at the joints and broke where 
the hands joined in front. 

Where the bones joined the substance looked white, but 
the rest was of a blackish brown color and when touched 
would crumble and rub off like sand. The miners started 
to lift the body by the waist, but when just off the ground 
the legs came off at the hip-joint and fell over to the 
sides, when they separated at the knees. 

They gathered up the pieces of their stone man and 
brought them to the surface without miking any further 
exploration of the cave. The face is clearly formed, but 
the features are not plain on account of the crumbling 
away. 

Mr. Donnelly took an arm and the lower part of one leg 
with him to Glen wood Springs and had it examined by 
several doctors, who were at a loss to explain the cause of 
the curious formation. To what age or race the strange 
dwarf belongs is also a mystery, but perhaps a further ex- 
ploration of the cave may develop some discoveries that 
will throw some light on the matter. 



A TREASURE CAVERX. 



PREHISTORIC SKELETONS GARNISHED AVITH GOLDEN NUG- 
GETS — RELICS OF THE COPPER AGE. 

Following is a dispatch from Helena, Montana, dated 
July 11. 1839: 

The Belt Mountains have always been the seat of mys- 
terious stories, and in their numerous gulches and canons 
have been picked up wonderful relics. Among the most 
curious are agatized human maxilaries and teeth, all of 
gigantic size. Gold in quantities has been found in the 
Beit Mountains, and rubies, sapphires and even diamond- 
are shown as products of one or the other portion of the 
territory. A gold hunter tells a remarkable storv. accom- 
panied by numerous attestations to its truth. While pro-- 
X^ecting in the Belt Mountains he found a peculiar depres- 



APPhWDTX. 57 

sioo in the ground. After excavating, he discovered a 
mysterious cavern, reached by twenty-three steps. 

••At the foot of the stairs. "'says he. "on one side of the 
passage, lay the skeleton of a man of immense stature. 
The skeleton measures exactly nine feet six inches in 
height. The skull lay a few inches from the trunk, and 
be: ween the two lay twenty-seven nuggets. They were 
strung on a fine gold wire, and ranged from one ounce to 
ten in weight. Around the thigh, arm and shin bones 
were other strings of nuggets, none of which weighed 
more than four ounces. There were about -fifteen pieces 
of gold in the pile. They were of many different shapes; 
Xone of them weighed over three ounces and each piece 
had a hole through the center. On each side of the skull 
I found some sort of precious stones. They lay in a tiny 
golden basket and were evidently worn in the ears as an 
ornament. I do not know what name to give them, but I 
believe that they are rubies. 

"Beside the trunk of the skeleton I found a copper ax. 
with an edge harder and keener than any steel instrument 
of the kind I have ever seen. On the opposite side was a 
club made of the same metal as the ax. It was shaped 
not unlike a baseball bat. Under the trunk was a gold 
plate ten inches long, six inches wide, and one-eighth of 
an inch thick. It was covered with strange devices" 

••A little farther on lav another skeleton, that of a wo- 
man. I picked up a string of nuggets near this skull also. 
They were perfectly round and exactly the same size. 
They weighed about three ounces apiece. Every now and 
then 1 came to other skeletons, and. although by nearly 
every one of them I found necklaces, yet strange to say 
thev were made of round copper balls. The catacombs. 
as I have named this passage, are about 300 feet long, 14 
feet wide and 30 feet high, and seems to have been cut out 
of the solid rock. At the end of the gallery is a room 60 
feet square and 40 feet high. In the center of this room 
stands a block of granite about 12 feet square and 4 feet 
high. It seems as'though the rock had been hewn around 
it. It is perfectly square, and it is exactly the same dis- 
tance from the walls of the room on every side. 

••There are steps cut in the rock leading to the top of the 
hall. On the top stands another block of granite. 10 feet 
long. 4 wide and 3 high. This is hollowed out in the shape 
of a human form. I lay down in this, and though I am not a 
small man by anv means, vet the mould was much too laro*e 



53 THE EARTH— ITS THIRD M <flOY. 

for me. Around the room were scattered vessels of clay, some 
of which will hold twenty-five gallons. Trier are light, yet 
tougher than wrought iron. I tried to break one of them 

by dashing it against the granite flooring of the room. [ 
could not even scratch it. Altogether 1 gathered up 50 I 
ounces of gold in the underground passage.'' 



A PETRIFIED MISER. 



DEATH FOUND HIM f^RASPIN(i HIS PRECIOUS POSSESSION^ 

— DIAMONDS IN HIS HAND. 

Following is a dispatch to the San Francisco B-> 

irom Kearney. Nebraska, dated August •'), 1SS9: 

J. E. Mote, a farmer living iu Phelp> county, about 
twelve miles from Kearney. i< in possession pf a curiosity 

which is a valuable relic of prehistoric times in this part 
of the continent. Some time ago. while excavating for a 
cave, he exhume:! a large brown stone weighing over 
twenty pounds. TThen the clay was removed from it a 
large fossil, representing a clenched human hand, was re- 
vealed. The specimen nad been broken from the mam- 
moth arm just above the wrist, and the imprint of a coarse 
cloth or some woven material was plainly outlined on the 
back of The hand. At the time of the discovery nothing 
^tas said of it. as Mr. Mote does not belong to the curious 
class of people. 

For several months the specimen had lain about the 
house, and no one who saw it had any idea of the great 
amount of wealtfc held firmly in the grasp of the stony 
fingers. A small boy in the family, whose faculty for 
smashing things is just beginning to develop, conceived 
the idea^bf opening the hand. TThen broken, to his aston- 
ishment, there rolled out eleven brilliant transparent 
stones. The discovery of these beauties was not made 
public until yesterday, when Mr. Mote showed them to a 
jeweler, who pronounced them genuine first- water dia^ 
monds. without a speck or flaw to mar their beauty. 

The jewels are nearly all uniform in size and are about 
the shape of Lima beans. They have the appearance of 
being water-worn, but are still beautiful stones. The pos- 
«es-of of this Valuable find will dispose of the diamonds, 
and Wili at once begin his search in the old cave for the 
other hand as well as the rest of the body of this relic of 
an earlv a°;e. 



APPENDIX. 59 

The mystery of the broken hand is one of perplexing 
i nt rest. How long has it been there"? To what race of 
giants did its owner belong'? Was the subject an ancient 
miser, who died grasping "his most precious possessions? 
and many other like questions are raised by the discovery, 
but to all of them the modern historian can only answer 
in remote and uncertain speculation. 



A WOXDERFUL FIXD. 

A HUMAN IMAGE IN BAKED CLAY FOUND THREE HUN- 
DRED FEET BENEATH THE SURFACE. 

Ill sinking the artesian well — which our friend Kurtz 
is interested in at Nampa, in this county — a few days 
since, at a depth of 310 feet, the sand pump brought up 
a well-formed human image in baked clay, two or three 
inches in length: perfect, save one foot was off at 
the ankle and the other just below the knee. We 
have not seen the wonderful rind, but are told that it is 
really an artistic piece of work, the nose slightly worn, 
but the other features sharp and clear, and undoubtedly of 
burned clay. This seems 10 establish two facts ; first, that 
the volcanic eruptions which at different periods have 
flowed over the plains between the Boise and Snake have 
aggregate;! a deposit of more than 300 feet; secondly, that 
previous to the earliest ages of that period this valley was 
occupied with human beings of sumcient civilization to 
make plastic images of the human form and bake the same 
into the imperishable article which has survived all these 
ages since. We imagine that there is great historic value 
and signitieanee in "this discovery at the bottom of the 
Nampa artesian well, and shall await with great interest 
the opinions of the savaiis. — Boise City (Statesman. 



JULES VEKXE OUTDOXE. 



THE SECRETS OF THE EARTH REVEALED BY AN EARTH- 
QUAKE — SUBTERRANEAN SIGHTS. 

The party that went up to Rocky Canyon on Yulupa 
Mountain a week ago to investigate the phenomena fol- 
lowing the recent "earthquake, returned to-day. There 
were seven members of the party, which was headed by 
.James Bordwell, the coal-burner, who hrst brought the 
news to El Verano of the strange actions of the waters in 
the old quicksilver mine in Rocky Canyon. 



60 THE EARTH— IT iS THIRD MOTION. 

Yulupa Mountain lies about twenty miles northwest of 
El Verano, and it is the loftiest peak in the range of So- 
noma Mountains. Its sides are very s.eep and rocky and 
are covered with a heavy growth of pine, redwood, man- 
zanita and madrona, which, during the past two years, has 
been turned into charcoal by venturesome Americans. Ital- 
ians and Portugese. 

The trail up this mountain is sinuous and rough, it being 
absolutely impossible to get within rive mhes of Kocky 
Canyon on horseback or with any kind of conveyance. 
The coal-burners are obliged to carry the product of their 
pits to what they term a ** lading** in sacks and long bas- 
kets hung at the end of poles resting across their shoul- 
ders, where it is taken in small and strongly-built wagons 
drawn by mules to the railway stations in the valley be- 
low. 

The party of explorers went up this trail as far a3 pos- 
sible in the saddle. After a weary climb of two days they 
left the horses in charge of an Indian boy that had accom- 
panied them and started to cover the rest of the distance 
on foot. Each man carried a pack of provisions on his 
shoulders and a heavy stick in his hand, which answered 
the purpose of au alpenstock, and in many instances these 
staffs, armed with a sharp spike at one end. saved a man 
an unpleasant, and, perhaps a fatal, tumble down the side 
of the mountain . 

It was a daj T and a night's journey from the horses to 
the coal pits, and the explorers labored up the trail with- 
out sleep, stopping only to unstrap their packs and lunch 
on the contents. It was a wiid country, and three times 
was the progress of the party impeded by bears, which, in 
each instance were laid low with a bullet from the rirle of 
Bordwell, the guide. The nights on the mountain were 
made bright by the light of the moon, but the wild 
screams of mountain lions and the weird 'hoots of owls 
tended to keep the ghost of slumber from the eyelids of 
the explorers, who were men unborn and unused to the 
strange sounds of the mountain wilderness. 

The coal pits of Bordwell were reached on the morning 
of the third day about 2 o'clock withoat accident to any 
member of the party excepting a broken linger that the 
Examiner correspondent got by failing down a steep de- 
clivity about twenty feet into a pile of jagged rocks. 
Bordwell's fellow-workman, whose leg had been broken 
by the bowlder shaken loose by the earthquake that 



APPENDIX. 61 

crashed through the hut in which he was sleeping, was 
found to be suffering inteuse pain from the inflammation 
caused by the fracture. The sufferings of the poor fellow 
were lessened by Dr. Ordwell. a member of the party, who 
reduced the fracture and administered a soothing potion 
to the patient. 

In the shadow of the smouldering coal-pits the wearied 
explorers threw themselves down, wrapped in their blank- 
ets, and for the first time since they left the horses, enjoyed 
sleep. 

It was past 9 o'clock whenBordwell, who had risen with 
the sun. called the party up. and in ten minutes each man 
was washing a piece of broiled venison down his throat 
with a cup of delicious coffee prepared by a coal-burner, 
who had come over from the neighboring pits to remain 
with the man with the broken leg until Bordwell's return. 

These coal pits were located on the north side of Kocky 
Canyon, which is a deep cut or defile in the side of the 
mountain, running from a narrow point near the top to the 
valley below, where it broadens out in the proportions of 
a narrow valley, rich in vegetation and valuable grazing 
ground for stock. 

At the head of this canyon are several ever-flowing 
springs whose waters unite, forming a stream of consider- 
able proportions that flows through the canyon into the 
valley, and at last debouches into Sonoma Creek. Xear 
these springs, years ago. a party of Spanish prospectors 
discovered and worked a silver mine, only abandoning it 
when they had penetrated the mountain nearly 200 feet 
and were driven back by a resistless flow of water. For 
thirty years the shaft of this mine had stood full of water, 
until the recent earthquake, when it gushed out in a tor- 
rent, as described in a previous issue of the Examiner. 

When the part?- of explorers visited the shaft on the 
morning of their arrival there were no indications that 
water had flowed from its mouth within the past twenty- 
four hours, as the earth was dry. From within the shaft 
came a murmur as of escaping steam in the distance; a 
sort of a muffled, protracted hiss, with now and then a 
swash like the slopping of waves against the face of a cliff 
on the seashore. 

When the proposition was made that the shaft be ex- 
plored but four of the party decided to enter it. These 
were Bordwell, the coal burner, Dr. Ordwell, Charles 



62 THE EARTH-IT; THIRD MOTTOX. 

Westover, a merchant, and the Examiner correspondent. 
The prospect waa rather dubious, but the party had come 
a long way for the purpose of solving the mystery of the 
mine, and it would not do to turn back with simply having 
looked into the shaft : so enveloped in suits of rubber ana 
armed with pikes, the party of four descended iuto the 
darkness of the shaft, each man carrying a lantern. 

As the party advanced toward the bottom of the shaft 
the hissing and swashing became more apparent, and it at 
last became necessary for the members of the party to 
shout at the top of their voices while conversing in order 
to make themselves heard. 

The floor or .bottom of the shaft, which ran into the 
mountains at a decline of about forty-rive degrees, was 
wet and covered with slime that had probably accumu- 
lated during the years that the water had stood in the 
shaft. aLd lizzards and mud-jumpers glided up the slip- 
pery walls when the light from the lanterns dissipated the 
darkness. 

About 100 feet from the mouth of the shaft Dr. Ordwell 
struck his foot against something half buried in the mud. 
which, upon investigation, proved to be a portion of what 
was presumably once the jaw-bone of some gigantic ani- 
mal. It measured ten inches and a half in length, and 
into it were set four cylindrical teeth, an inch and a half 
1 )iig. It was in a perfect state of preservation, and. from 
the way in which it was buried in the mud. it was un- 
doubtedly driven outward from the bottom of the shaft by 
i'ie waters as they rushed out. With this specimen eare- 
fully secured, the party moved on. Splendid specimens 
of petrified wood, some of them three feet long, were 
found scattered over the ground, and the putrefying bodies 
of a peculiarly shaped fish were found as the bottom of 
the shaft was neared. These fish were about thirteen 
inches long and fiat, in many respects resembling the 
j anted body of the tapeworm. Their eyes were setf in a 
broad, fiat head and there were three fins on each side of 
the bod}- between the head and the tail, which was long 
and thin, like the tail of a swallow. These fish were Iigh r 
in color and their bodies appeared to be transparent as the 
light was held near them. Their decaying bodies filled 
the shaft with an almost unbearable stench^and the party, 
with the lower part of their faces buried in their hands, 
hurried on. At the farther end of the shaft was found a 



APPENDIX. 63 

wide crevice extending fron: the bottom upward toward 

the top. This crevice was about six feet wide, and evi- 
dences indicated that the earthquake shock had rent the 
wail of the mine, and through this aperture had rushed 
the pent-up waters of a subterranean river until their 
force was spent. Through this crevice came the hissing 
and splashing sound, and carefully, on their hands and 
knees, through the mud the explorers crept through the 
seam, and sliding down a short decline, found themselves 
standing on a narrow led^e of rock that extended out into 
a torrent of water, the width of which could not oe ascer- 
tained. Opposite this ledge a sharp spur of rock extended 
out of the darkness, and against this the water rushed, 
giving out the swashing sound that could be heard at the 
mouth of the shaft. Holding their lanterns aloft the ex- 
plorers beheld a sight that brought an exclamation of sur- 
prise from every lip. 

About fifteen feet above their heads hung the arched 
roof of the cavern or channel through which the water 
was rushing, and in the light of the lanterns it threw back 
a dazzling shower of coruscations. It was like a vast 
geode. the roof and sides being covered with a jagged 
crystallization blending the delicate tint of amethystine 
bine with the pure white of the pearl. In the glare of 
the lanterns the roof and walls flashed like the walls of a 
crystal palace. The water that came out of the darkness 
and rolled by at the feet "of the party was of a whiti-h 
tint, and to the taste gave the impression that it was 
strongly impregnated with alkali. Hundreds of the strange 
fish ^ten in the shaft were attracted to the ledge by the 
light of the lantern, and their long bodies twisted like 
sei'pents as they held their own against the tide, and glared 
at the lanterns with their bulging eyes. 

As the party moved slowly along 'the edge to the left it 
gradually widened. About seventy-live feet from the 
crevice through which the party had entered the cavern 
the river took a sudden turn and rushed with a loud roar 
over what appeared to be a spur of rock and down a steep 
declivity. Further investigation in this direction was pre- 
vented by a wall of rock that ran across the end of the 
ledge, evidently turning the water from its course. A 
strong draft of wind swept through the passage at inter- 
vals, threatening to extinguish the lights of the lanterns. 
The lanterns were held aloft at the end of the ledge, but 
nothing could be seen at this point but the most intense 



64 THE EARTH— ITS THIRD MOTION, 

darkness. The ledge on which the explorers stood was of 
a hard, flinty nature, and in it. at intervals of about five 
feet apart, appeared curious imprint- as of the feet of 
some strange animal. As the party proceeded along the 
ledge to the right of the crevice it gradually grew nar- 
rower and the roof of the cavern descended so that it be- 
came necessary for the members of the party to stoop as 
they advanced, and after going in this direction about fifty 
feet the roof was so low and the ledge so narrow they were 
obliged to return. 

The imprints in the ledge were closely studied and there 
were found to be two varieties. One was made up of three 
toes like that of a great bird, the middle toe measuring 
seven inches. Theother impression was like the hand of 
a man in shape, but of enormous breadth, measuring 
eighteen inches across the palm. These imprints resemble 
those of the labyrinthodon. an antediluvian animal sup- 
posed by scientists to have resembled a huge frog. 

After an hour's stay in the cavern the party came out 
and returned to the camp. The conclusion arrived at by 
those who visited the shaft is that there had been a sub- 
terranean reservoir beyond the end of the shaft for year.-. 
and that the earthquake rent the wall, giving liberty to the 
waters that flowed through the crevice into ^the shaft and 
down the canyon until the surplus was exhausted. 

The same convulsion of the earth probably widened the 
bed of the river, and the river now flows steadily on from 
its source to its mouth, wherever they may be. It is evi- 
dent from the formation of the cavern, the footprints and 
other indications that at some day in the past there has 
been a terrible upheaval of the earth at this point. — San 
Francisco Exam iner. 



EARTHQUAKE IX KIUSHU. 



ONLY TWO HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN ONE HUNDRED AND 
ELEVEN TEAKS. 

The location of the earthquakes described below is very 
near the frigid zone which surrounded one of the former 
poles of the Earth, and is a result of that constant effort 
which centrifugal force is making to round out the present 
equator to a perfect circle. Its radial measurement lacks 
one mile of its proper length, and there will be no perma- 



APPENDIX. 65 

n?nt rest for the Earth in that region until this is accom- 
plished. Following Lb a letter to the San Francisco EJcar** 

?.rvfrom Yokohama. Japan, dated August 2. 1839: 

It is jus: a little over a year ago that the terrible eruption 
of the mountain of Bandai (Japanese Bandaisan). which 
carried death and destruction over several square miles of 
the fair province of Twashiro, on the main island of Japan, 
aroused the sympathy of the entire world. 

On the 2Sth of July the island of Kiushu. the s ruthwest- 
erumostof the four great island- forming the main portion 
of the Empire of Japan, was visited by the severest earth- 
quake that has occurred in Japan since the great one which 
took place in Yeddo, now Tokio. in 1853. 

The first vibrations were felt in Kumamoho. a mountain 
town situated in the province of Higo. The first shock 
was felt about 11:50 p. M. of the 28th. and was succeeded 
by shock after shock until 10 A. M. the following day. The 
earth literally opened its mouth, and large rents were 
made in the land, crushing houses that fell into the crev- 
ices as a nut is cracked in a nut-cracker. 

The quake extended north into Chicugo Province, south 
iuto Hiuga Province and east into Bungo. altogether affect- 
ing an area of a little over seventy-hve square miles. The 
whole district is exceedingly mountainous and difficult of 
access. Kumiamoto is in the northern portion of Hi^o 
Province and is a place of great historical importance. 
Xear to it is A-o Yama. an extinct, or at least a quiescent, 
volcano. This, however, does not seem to have exhibited 
any signs of disturbance, although some say that the 
mountain was visibly shaken, and distinct rumbling noise.- 
were heard. But Aso Yama is really the center of a chain 
of volcanic mountains, and Mount Kinpo. situated in the 
western portion of Kumamoto town, and which was the 
real center, as far as now can be ascertained, of the earth- 
quake. 

At 1.0 a. m. on Monday, the 29th day of July, there was 
a short truce, lasting some hours, bat the (tremors and 
shakings com neneed agiin. with iricrea?eJ violence, and 
continue! with short inzeiwals up to 5 p. w. the following 
day. up to which time no less than fifty-three distinct, 
heavy shocks had bee i recorded, thirtr-one houses had 
been demolished, fifteen persons crushed to death, about 
thirty seriously hurt, and no less than fifteen distinct crev- 
asses in the earth were visible. This alone in Kumamoto. 



65 THE EARTH— ITS THIRD MOTION. 

The damage done in the other provinces has not yet been 
completely ascertained. From data now at hand the prob- 
able total loss of life will not exceed fifty, bnt the prop- 
erty loss will be very large, besides the immense Dumber 
of people who will be rendered destitute through the loss 
of houses and crops. 

On Wednesday, the 31st of July, the disturbance seems 
to have crossed the channel separating Kiushu from the 
island of Shikoku. Telegrams received here late last night 
state that the earth there is in a violent state of agitation, 
and that the province of Iyo has been badly shaken up. 
(Just as I penned the last sentence I experienced a momen- 
tary feeling — perhaps for the space of half a second — of 
sea-sickness. It was due to an eaithquake wave felt in 
Yokohama, about 10:35 a. m.. Japan standard time. The 
shock lasted about thirty seconds — course, south to north, 
not severe, but decidedly unpleasant.) 

Hitherto the island of Kiushu has been comparatively 
free from severe earthquakes. The whole of Japan being 
of volcanic origin, of course no part has entirely escaped 
earth tremors and shocks, but very violent earthquakes, 
that is. such as cause fissures in the earth, and bring about 
destruction of life and property, occur only at rare inter- 
vals. It is 111 years (A. D. 1778) since Kiushu has thus 
suffered, and the visitation was confined entirely to the 
southern part of the province, but I have no data to fix 
the amount of damage or loss of life. 

But unfortunately this earthquake is not the only calam- 
ity that this island has been visited with this year: nay. 
what I refer to occurred on the Sth and 9th of July, some 
twenty days before the seismic disturbance. The Province 
of Bungo has been terriblj* flooded and inundated. In one 
ken (ken is a division of a province somewhat similar to 
our county) 135 houses. 6.058 yards of embankment and 
about two miles of metaled road were destroyed, eleven 
bridges were carried away, ten persons killed, three 
drowned and thirteen received injuries more or less se- 
vere. In a second ken 983 houses. 1.200 yards of rher 
embankment and eight miles of road were destroyed, sev- 
eral hundreds of acres of cultivated land damaged and 
ten bridges carried away. Eighteen persons were drowned, 
live more killed and seven others more or less severely in- 
jured. In two other kens of the same province damage to 
property has been enormous, with the loss of about thirty 
lives. All this damage was caused bv the overflow of two 



APPENDIX. 67 

other' ise insigniricant rivers, called the Kumagawa and 
M;tmaagawa (Gotta is the Japanese for river.) "The total 
— . :.s estimated by government authorities, in this pro- 
vince will aggregate about $400,000. But in contemplat- 
ing tl.is amount the^American reader must not estimate 
I he American standard. Here in Japan a farmer who 
is worth a few hundred dollars over and above his land is 
wealthy. Consequently, multiply the sum given above by 
ten and then you will only have a moderate estimate of 
the damage had this terrible visitation come to a similar 
population in America. 



ICE IX THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 



FIKST DISCOVERY OF ICE ON THE SWEETWATER IX 1S46 
AND 1851 — NO SOLUTION GIVEN. 

The location mentioned in the following extract, taken 
from the Or^aoni^n. was probably on the turning point 
parallel of latitude, about 43 = north, in Wyoming Terri- 
tory) during the swaying of the Earth, and being on the 
Frigid Meridian, and the coutry rilled with interior water. 
it was frozen to a great depth. There are other localities 
in like condition, and from a like cause: 

Quite recently the world has been told that ice was dis- 
covered near the summit and west of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, bedded in the high plateaus of that region. Within 
the past six months the Oregonian has recited the fact that 
a company, of wnich the late Hiram Smith, of Portland, 
was captain, and of which E. N. Cooke and Elijah Wil- 
liams, of Salem, all now deceased, were members, found 
such ice bedded in the mountain soil near the surface, on 
the Sweetwater river, in the summer of 1S51. 

Other and younger members of that company were T. 
McF. Pattern, Joseph Cooke. Richard Williams. Major 
George Williams and Mrs. S. A. Clarke, who kept a diary 
of the journey, which she refers to and furnishes the fol- 
lowing incident of the digging up of the ice. Mr. Smith 
the red shirt Smith of pioueer times; had crossed the 
plains in 1S46. and discovered, or was shown, this ice at 
that time. Probably old mountain men were along who 
knew of its existence, and showed him the deposit as they 
passed. Mr. Smith was a remarkable man. and never for- 



68 THE EARTH— I T.J THIRD MOTIJX. 

got anything once known, so he had this place plainly in 
mind. Mrs. Clarke, though it was over thiity-eight yeaia 
ago when she was young, remembers the spot perfectly. It 
was nut an alkali region, bur a mountain or foothill coun- 
try, entirely free from ah forest growth with a beautiful 
green sod shining in the summer air. % They dug about 
two fett deep and dug out great bloeks of it. and sre then 
expressed the same idea that was recently reported as the 
impression of the last discoverers, that it was the remains 
of an old glacier. They found it twenty inches deep, and 
though it was nearly forty years ago. the iee remain- tin- 
bedded in the bosom of the mountain upland-. 

Some years ago when she entertained John Muir, the 
naturalist, at her home, tni- lady re>pouded to his tales of 
glaciers by telling of her long ago expeiience of finding 
Tee in the mideontinent. He was asked for an opinion as 
to its formation, and especially if it could be from glacial 
action, but could offer no solution of the strange problem. 
In these parts hot springs are not singular, and why should 
we not be permitted to rind ice furnished by nature as 
readily as boiling spring*? 

The passage from the diary of 1851 is as follows : 

•• June 19. 1851. — Xine days after rinding J-^weetwater. we 
struck camp early, as we had sixteen miles of waterless 
desert to pass, though there is ice a little way off from the 
road. Large pieces of it were dug out only a few feet 
from the surface. It was quite free from impurities. It 
is a singular sight to see ice this hot day imbedded in na- 
ture's own laboratory. Can it be an old glaeier'r It was 
only a few steps from the road, and Mr. Smith remem- 
bered that when he crossed the plains in "46 they found it 
and made use of it. so he hunted for it and found it to- 
day/' 

The same journal, a few days later, has another remark- 
able paragraph concerning the existence of -tar springs." 
of which the ubiquitous "Red Shirt Smith" was also well 
informed when crossing the plains in 1S46: for he had 
crossed the plains early and often before that. There is 
no doubt that this supposed -natural tar" was petroleum, 
and this shows that the recent discovery of oil in that re- 
gion was only a rerrnding of what was long ago known to 
old mountain men and pioneers. The journal says, of 
date July 3: 

••\esterday we passed near by th^ tar springs, so when 
the train nooned. we went out to visit them under the 



APPEXBIX. 69 

guidance of Mr. Smith, who learned of them when cross- 
ing the plains before. It was about a quarter of a mile 
from the road the emigrants traveled. The teamsters 
tilled their tar backets. The substance found is much like 
the tar that is usel for the wagons and it oozes out of tn-e 
ground. If a hole is da* it soon rills up. and after it 
s:auds awhile the top is covered with a tar-like substance 
which is a senm of oily matter that has a qaeer pungent 
smell, bat there is clear water underneath it. It is a curi- 
ous deposit." 

VOLCAXIC RELICS. 



CURIOUS NATURAL FORMATION TO BE SEEN IN NORTH- 
WESTERN NEW MEXICO. 

If volcano? were outlets to a hollow globe filled with a 
ni)lten mass of fire, simply engage I in the unique business 
of only cooling off. the ••roots" of volcanos would not be 
found so near the Earth's surface, as shown in the follow- 
ing extract from the Boston Transcript: 

During the past summer Captain C. E. Dutton. of the 
geological survey, has been studying some remarkable 
relics of ancient volcanic action in the northwestern por- 
tion of Xew Mexico. They consist of a multitude of 
needle-like peaks rising out of the broad valley bottoms to 
altitudes varying from 1,000 to 2.200 feet. They are called 
chimneys by the residents. They are composed of black 
basaltic lava, having a beautiful columnar structure like 
the basalt of the Giant's causeway. They are remnants of 
lava which once rose up out of the earth through the strata 
and congealed in the volcanic pipes or vents. In later 
periolsthe strata which inclosed them have been dis- 
solved and removed by the general erosion of the country, 
leaving these basaltic eores'projeciing many hundreds of 
feet in the air. as casts of the volcanic pipes or passages 
through which the ancient towers rose to the surface. The 
proof of this origia is conclusive. Around the valleys in 
which they stand rise lofty tables or plateaus known in the 
west as mesas. These are capped with heavy sheets of 
bisalt. and beneath them are the stratafied sandstones and 
shales of the western coal fields. In the walls and upon 
the slopes of these mesas may be seen many of those chim- 
neys in every stage of partial disinterment, some nearly 



70 THE EARTH— ITS THIRD MOTION*. 

excavated, some half disentombed, and some just begin- 
ning to appear, as the mesa walls still have, remnants of 
the old cinder cones upon their summits, while from those 
whicn are wholly or in the greatest part excavated ail 
traces of the cinder cones have disappeared. Thus the 
veritable roots of the ancient volcanoes are uu earthed aud 
laid open to the inspection of the geologist. The locality 
where these volcanic •'necks*' (for thisT is the technical 
name given them by geologists) are seen lies along the 
eastern flank of Mount Taylor, one of the great extinct 
volcanoes of the west. It is about sixty miles west of Rio 
Grande, and seventy miles northwest of Albuquerque. 



TAKE YOUR CHOICE. 



In v iew of the fact that no •' last man" will ever live 
upon the Earth to perish alone, the following •• solutions " 
of " the fate" are rather amusing as specimens of ignor- 
ance run mad. The St. Louis Eepublk says : 

What will be the fate of the last man is a subject that 
has often been discussed. There have been about a dozen 
different solutions to the question. Ten of the best are 
summarized below : 

1. The surface of the earth is steadily diminishing, ele- 
vated regions being lowered and the seas are filling up. 
The land will at last be all submerged and the last man 
will be drowned. 

2. The ice is gradually accumulating at the north pole 
and slowly melting away at the south, the consequences of 
which will be an awful catastrophe when the earth's cor- 
ner of gravity suddenly changes. The last man will be 
killed by the crashing of movables or drowned by the 
torrents of water that will lush across the face of the land. 

3. The earth cannot always escape collision with a 
comet, and when that disaster does come there will be a 
commingling of air and cometary gases which will cause 
a grand but awful and terrific explosion. If the last man 
has not already been suffocated he wi41 be killed by the 
concussion. 

4. There is a retarding medium in space, causing a 
gradual loss of velocity in the planets, and the earth, 
obeying the laws of gravitation, will get nearer and nearer 
to the sun, and the last man will, therefore, die of exces- 
sive heat. 



APPEMjIX. 71 

5. The amount of water on the earth is slowly diminish- 
ing Finally the earth will be auarid waste, like the moon, 
an 3 the last man will die for want of water. 

6. Other suns have disappeared, and ours must, sooner 
or later, blaze up and then go out forever. The intense 
heat at the time cff blazing up will burn the earth thou- 
sands of feet deep: the last man will thus be literally 
roasted- off the face of the earth. 

7. The sun's tire will gradually burn out and the tem- 
perature will cool. The earth's glacial zones will enlarge, 
driving shivering humanity toward the equator. ULtil the 
habitable space will lessen almost to nothing and over- 
crowded humanity will be frozen in a heap. 

8. A gradual cooling of the earth's surface will produce 
enormous fissures in the outside crust like those seen on 
the moon. The remnant of humanity will take refuge m 
these great caves and the last man will be killed through 
some great convulsion of nature. 

S. The eartft will separate into small fragments and the 
last man will have a fearful ride as he falls through space 
forever. 

10. Tne human family will retrogade until man will not 
possess a higher nature than the plant louse of to-day. 
Such being the case, this curious inhabitant will spon- 
taneously produce posterity of both sexes, and when an- 
nihilation takes place it will be the closing act to the 
drama in which each has played his part. 



ALASKA'S WONDER. 



THE MU1R GLACIER. AVHICH IS FORTY MILES LONG AND 
MOVES SIXTY FEET A DAY. 

We have called attention in several previous issues of 
the Trail to this remarkable glacier, which is one of the 
most awe-inspiring of Xature's works in our farthermost 
northern possessions, and is every year adding to its admi- 
ration of the grand, novel and beauti^l — to this most at- 
tractive and interesting section of the globe. During the 
excursion season, tourist tickets are on sale over the Rock 
Island or Albert Lea routes and connecting lines, includ- 
ing steamship passage from San Francisco. Portland. Ta- 
coma. Port Townsend or Seattle at exceedingly moderate 
round -trip rates. 



72 THE EARTH—ITS THIRD MOTION. 

The most notable of the glaciers in Alaska is called "The 
MuiiV' in honor of Prof. John Muir. the geologist, who 
gave to the world the first description of it. It is forty 
miles long, and back on the land, in a basin of the moun- 
tains. Being reinforced by fifteen tributaries coming 
down the glens from different points of the compass, it 
swells to an icv sea twenty-five miles in diameter. Thence 
it moves with resistless power, bearing rocks and long 
lines of detritus on its billowy surface. Just before it 
reaches the bay it is compressed by two sentinel mountains 
into and forced through a gorge one mile in width. 

Emerging from this narrow gateway it moves on. at the 
rate of forty to sixty feet a day. to the waters whence it 
originally came, buttressing the bay with a perpendicular 
wall 800 feet high, 300 feet of ultramarine crystals tipped 
with purest white being above the surface, and, being 
pushed beyond its support in the underlying rock, a battle 
begins between cohesion and gravity. The latter force 
always prevails, and vast masses break fromj the glacial 
torrent with the combined crash of falling walls and 
heavy thunder, and tumble into the bay with a dash and a 
shock that agitates the waters miles away, making naviga- 
tion perilous to crafts of all sizes. The almost deafening 
roar when these masses are rent away, the splashing bap- 
tism they receive in their fall, and the leaping waters are 
lively witnesses to the birth of an iceberg, which hence- 
forth, as an independent existence, goes on its mission of 
girding the shores, butting against its fellows and of scar- 
ing navigators. 

While the ship was resting unmoored near the front of 
this icy barrier (says Prof. Horace W. Briggs in the Sitka 
Alaskan), we were startled by the sudden appearance of a 
mass of dark crystal, vastly larger than our own ship, 
shooting up from the depths and tossing our steamer as if 
it were an eggshell. As the vessel careened, the frightened 
passengers were sent whirling against her, over chairs, or 
prostrate upon the deck. This strange visitor had doubt- 
less been broken ofLfrom the roots of the icy mountain, 
hundreds of feet below the surface, and hence had unex- 
pectedly appeared upon the scene. Had it struck the ship 
fairly, nothing but a miracle could have saved us. 

Having recovered somewhat from our dumb amazement, 
about twenty of us were sent on shore in the captain's gig. 
Landing some distance below the ice wall, we climbed 
seventy feet up a lateral moraine, crawled shoe-deep in 



APPENDIX. 73 

wet gra\el down into the valley of a glacial river, forded 
it, paddled through glacial rnud covered with shingle 
just deep enough to hide the creamy pools, slipped pros- 
trate on the ice made treacherous by a thin disguise of 
detritus, and barked our shins and cut our shoes on the 
sharp angular blocks of granite aud basalt strewn for two 
miles in great profusion along our perilous route. 

Blocks of the finest marble hedged our pathway; we 
trod on chips of jasper and chalcedony, the product of 
different mountains far up on the peninsula, and passed 
two exquisitely beautiful boulders of veined porphyry, 
weighing 200 or 300 pounds each, ronuded and polished by 
centuries of attrition. They were of dark purple, streaked 
with quartz spotlessly white, very desirable specimens for 
a cabinet or for out-of-door ornamentation. After more 
than an hour of plunging and sprawling, and of* pulling 
each other out of gray mire, about half of our number 
reached the uncovered glacier, and at the first glance we 
felt that here we should stand with uncovered heads, for 
we were in the presence of the marvelous manifestation of 
superhuman power in action, and looked with unveiled 
eyes upon the potent agencies by which much of this 
planet has been fashioned. 

Away in the distance was the white lake fed by numer- 
ous frozen rivers, and these rivers were born of mountain 
snows fifty miles distant. The white-robed mountains 
themselves, aeons in the past, were smoothed and grooved 
far up their flinty sides when this same glacier was three- 
fold deeper and many times more ponderous and mighty 
than it is to-day. Stretched along the base of the moun- 
tains till they were ouly a line in the distance were the 
record of those gray old years in the form of moraines 100 
feet high, and appearing like a range of hills. 

The larger portion of this crystal river, perhaps an eighth 
of a mile in width, is heaved into rounded hills and beet- 
ling precipices, quite resembling the sea in a storm; while 
the middle and much the wider part is splintered into 
countless spires and needles and pinnacles — ten, twenty, 
thirty feet in height, and of a beautiful ultramarine at the 
base shaded to a dead white at the summit. In the on- 
ward march of the glacier these pinnacles are occasion- 
ally wrenched from their seats in the solid ice beneath — 
they nod, then totter, and then make a plunge and are 
shatered into a cloud of acicular crystals that sparkle like 
the frosted snow under a full moon of a frosted night, only 



74 THE EARTH— ITS THIRD MOTION. 

with more of color; they are diamonds on the wing 
Again the whole surface is riven by a thousand crevasse?, 
along the bottom of which streams of clear water find 
their way, often broken by waterfalls that plunge farther 
down into the dark blue abysses out of sight. These 
chasms are frightful gaps to one peering down a hundred 
feet between their turquoise walls. A slip, a frail alpen- 
stock, a feeble grasp of the guide's rope, and gravity 
would close the scene without further ceremon\ r . The 
molecular structure of the glacier is coutinually changing, 
adjusting itself to the elevations and depressions of its 
rocky bed, aud hence there is an incessant clicking and 
crackling, interrupted here and there by an explosion 
heard over every inch of the surface. 

The whole scene is w^eird. and strange in sight and sound 
— in voices that rise to the air from the azure depths — fas- 
cinating because every step is perilous, majestic from its 
massiveness, and awful because its march is irresistible. 
Consider what force in wearing away mountains and glens 
an icy torrent must be, one mile wide, 800 feet deep, and 
in the middle flowing sixty feet a day ; it goes grinding 
and groaning and crackling in startling explosions, all 
mingled in a loud wail like that from the Titans impris- 
oned under Mount ^Etna. 

Now, let any one in fancy frame for himself this picture : 
Snow-capped mountains in the background, two of them, 
Fahwveather and Crillon, more than 15.000 feet high, thick 
set with glittering peaks and clear cut as silhouettes on a 
dark sky ; the great glacier, child of arctic snows, tur- 
reted and pinnacled and splintered into a thousand strange 
forms upon w^hich Iris has Hung varied hues of amethyst 
and turquoise and sapphire ; huge masses riven from the 
crystal river with a thundering roar, reeling and toppling 
into an amber sea, thickly dotted with new-born and 
vagrant icebergs ; and all this scene glorified and trans- 
figured by the setting sun. Looking upon this picture 
through the creative power of imagination, one can read- 
ily conceive that the enraptured tourist, standing in the 
presence of the realities, would call that day spent with 
the Muir glacier the day of all the days he ever passed in 
gazing upon and listening to the wild wonders of our 
planet.— The Trail. 



THE SOUTH POLE. 



SOME INTERESTING FACTS IN RELATION TO ANTARCTIC 
DISCOVERY. 

The golden age of antarctic discovery arrived when 
Captain, afterward Sir James Ross, was dispatched from 
England in 1840 to fix the position of the south magnetic 
pole, and any other position he could discover on the way 
there. Before Boss could reach the scene of his labors 
other explorers. English. French and American, were busy 
forestalling him. Of these the first was the Englishman. 
Balleny. who. sailing in Enderby's ship, the Eliza Scott, 
discovered in 1S39 the islands which bear his name, aud 
which lie almost under the Antarctic circle and almost due 
south from Xew Zealand. Balleny could not land on the 
islands, but he made sure of their existence, and afterward, 
sailing far to the westward, he saw many more signs of 
land, and suspected the existence of much which he'could 
not certainly vouch for. What Balleny thought he saw 
was probably much what the French expedition under 
Duniont d'Urville actually did see in the following year — 
several long lines of coast, which might be joined to one 
another, and might even run on to join Enderby Land in 
the west, and if so might certainly be part of the Antarc- 
tic continent that d'Urville was anxious to find. Xot less 
anxious was Wilkes, the leader of the United States ex- 
ploring expedition, who only a month after the French- 
man, 'arrived within a degree or two of the Antarctic cir- 
cle, to the south of Xew" Zealand, and. after seeing land, 
where Balleny had certainly seen it before, began to fancy 
that he saw it also where none had seen it before, and, un- 
fortunately, where no one has seen it since. For some 
days, indeed. Wilkes doubted whether what he beheld 
were mountains of clouds, objects of which his crew 
watched eagerly to see if with the setting of the sun they 
would change their color. But after moving westward 
along the edge of the pack for a few days, he made sure 
that he now saw land, and somewhat inconsequently as- 
sumed it for certain thut what he had seen before was land 
also. The discovery of an Anarctic continent was an- 
nounced as a certainty; a very large land, with a barrier 
of ice before it, had a range of mountains upon it. was 
laid down on the map, and a copy of the map was handed 
by the rash but generous explorer to Ross, who left Tas- 



76 THE EARTH— ITS THIRD MOTION. 

mania in the autumn of the same year to look for the mag- 
netic pole with the two ships Erebus and Terror, which 
afterward bore Sir John Franklin to his fate at the other 
end of the world. Ross had so little doubt that the Ant- 
arctic continent was discovered already that he seems to 
have been almost disappointed when his way to the mag- 
netic pole was barred by an unknown land. Yet this land, 
which lay south of the seventieth parallel and eastward of 
Balleny's islands, was the most southerly hitherto seen in 
the world, and on it rose mountains thousands of feet 
high, plain and mountain alike robed in stainless snow, 
except on the cliffs by the shore, where the black rock 
came out. The coast ran almost due north and south, and 
along its eastern face Ross advanced steadily until he had 
beaten Cook's record, and also Weddell's, and gone fur- 
ther south than any before him. But he could find no 
landing place on the mainland, so choked was every inlet 
with snow and ice; only on a small island were the ad- 
venturers able to touch Antarctic earth, a few men among 
thousands of screaming and biting penguins. Fresh 
mountains came constantly into view as they moved south- 
ward ; at last one in latitude 77°, over which a cloud of 
snow was blowing, but when they came nearer they saw 
that the cloud was smoke and gave the name of Mount 
Erebus to a giant volcano higher than Etna, which belches 
forth fire and smoke in a land where all things are frozen. 
Before Mount Erebus lies Cape Crozier, and round Cape 
Crozier Ross hoped to find a way to the westward, so as to 
reach the magnetic pole by the back of the new land he 
had found. But as they approached they saw stretching 
from Cape Crozier u as far as the eye could discern to the 
eastward" a "low white line," the nature of which they did 
not understand till they came close enough to see the truth 
with their eyes. It was a wall of ice 150 feet high, with- 
out break or slope, but one glittering, perpendicular steep, 
through which, as Ross said, one might as easily pass 
through the cliffs of Dover. Along this gleaming ram- 
part Ross ran eastward for 250 miles, and in the succeed- 
ing year, 1842, for 200 miles more without coming to its end, 
on both of which occasions he reached the high altitude of 
78° south, which has never since been approached by any 
man. — CasselVs Family Magazine. 



